(NEXSTAR) — An eruption of solar material and magnetic fields is impacting Earth, prompting one of the strongest geomagnetic storms of the year — and a chance at seeing the northern lights for many.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has been tracking four notable coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — explosions of plasma and magnetic material from the sun — since Monday. While “the bulk” of three of the CMEs was expected to miss Earth, the SWPC said one hurled out by the sun Wednesday appeared to be heading our way.
As predicted, the agency reported a strong G3-level geomagnetic storm had started early Thursday morning. In an update, the SWPC said “infrastructure operators have been notified to mitigate any possible impacts,” which may include “controllable power fluctuations in the power grid,” a “slight risk” to satellite operations, and “intermittent GPS degradation.” As daunting as that sounds, infrastructure managers faced even stronger geomagnetic storming this year, and you likely didn’t even notice.
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What you may notice, however, is the northern lights…