a day ago
Earth to be hit by powerful shockwave in just HOURS after giant 'claw-shaped' hole bursts through the sun
A giant hole has ripped open on the sun, blasting Earth with a high-speed stream of charged particles that could trigger power disruptions.
Officials warned that the solar wind is expected to strike Earth Friday causing a G2-level geomagnetic storm that is considerate moderate on a scale from G1 to G5.
However, it is still powerful enough to damage transformers in high-latitude power systems, affect satellite operations, and cause radio blackouts.
'Weak power grid fluctuations can occur,' officials share in a Friday update, noting that electricity has weakened around Michigan as of this morning.
A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of Earth's magnetic field caused by a massive eruption of charged plasma from the sun's outermost layer.
The official space weather forecast showed G-2 levels are expected to linger into Saturday, but decrease to a G1 storm by Sunday.
The solar activity could also send stunning northern lights as far south as Maine and Michigan.
The solar storm comes as scientists recently warned that humanity is not prepared for extreme space weather.
The colossal claw-shaped opening, known as a coronal hole, is the source of what's known as a Coronal Hole High-Speed Stream (CH HSS), a fast-moving flow of solar wind now headed straight for Earth.
The wind is currently traveling at hundreds of miles per second, faster than Earth's magnetic field.
As the stream catches up to slower solar wind ahead of it, it may create a Co-Rotating Interaction Region (CIR), a shockwave-like effect that can intensify the storm by compressing Earth's magnetic field.
This can lead to a range of effects: slight changes in satellite orbits, glitches in onboard instruments, and disruptions to polar flight navigation that relies on radio signals.
GPS services may also be affected, causing timing errors or location drift, especially near the poles or at high altitudes.
These disturbances are more common and more intense during solar maximum, the most active phase of the sun's 11-year cycle, when solar flares, sunspots, and coronal mass ejections peak.
Sunspots are dark areas on the sun where it's extra active, and solar flares are sudden bursts of energy from those spots.
Coronal mass ejections are huge clouds of charged particles the sun blasts into space, which can affect Earth's magnetic field.
During geomagnetic storms, solar particles strike Earth's magnetic field, some are directed to the planet's poles, where they collide with the gases in the atmosphere creating auroras.
On Saturday, auroras could be visible as far south as 55 degrees latitude, including parts of the northern US from New York to Idaho, depending on weather and light conditions.
The best views are expected further north, particularly in Canada.
On average, Earth experiences about 360 G2 level storms during the single solar cycle.
The G2 storm, the one recorded in September 2018, lasted for about four hours, with lingering weaker disturbances, classified as G1-level, before and after the main event.
Scientists say the same coronal hole faced Earth almost exactly a year ago, from June 4–5, 2024, and triggered a sustained G2-level storm.
In May, experts revealed they conducted extreme space weather scenario and found Earth may not survive.
They conducted a 'solar storm emergency drill', simulating what would happen if a major geomagnetic storm hit our planet.
Results showed power grids failed, blackouts were triggered and communication broke down across the US.
The exercise ran four simulations of geomagnetic storms of different severities, which is is a temporary disturbance of Earth's magnetic field caused by a massive eruption of charged plasma from the sun's outermost layer.
One scenario included a 'solar superstorm', strong enough cause an 'internet apocalypse,' resulting in power grid disruptions across the entire US with the eastern seaboard experiencing blackouts, which lasted for weeks.
Not only were power grids impacted, but railways and pipelines were also knocked offline, causing mass disruptions of travel and dramatic price increases of gas.
Scientists are now calling for a whole-of-government planning approach, arguing it will be critical for protecting America from cosmic disaster.
That would include deploying more satellites to monitor space weather, enhance real-time data collection to improve forecasting models, and provide earlier warnings.
