Another day another massive solar storm headed our way, all as the Sun approaches the peak of its 11-year-solar cycle. This is the result of the Sun releasing a coronal mass ejection, sending a massive ball of plasma through space at speeds upwards of 2.5 million miles an hour.
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00:00Another day, another massive solar storm headed our way, all as the Sun approaches the peak
00:09of its 11-year solar cycle.
00:11This is the result of the Sun releasing a coronal mass ejection, sending a massive ball
00:16of plasma through space at speeds upwards of 2.5 million miles an hour.
00:20That means the particles and accompanying geomagnetic storm are expected to arrive at
00:24our atmospheric doorstep on Thursday, October 10th at around noon eastern time.
00:30The Space Weather Prediction Center now says we're in for a G4-level geomagnetic storm.
00:34But what does that mean?
00:35Well, first, it means your chances of seeing an aurora are much higher even at lower latitudes.
00:40They say residents as far south as Northern California and Alabama might get a peek at
00:44one of them.
00:45A rarity indeed.
00:46However, they add it could also cause serious problems for our civilizations, communications
00:50and electrical systems.
00:52Back in May, Earth was hit with a G5-level storm.
00:55That one caused major disruptions to our GPS systems, with authorities saying that some
00:595,000 satellites had to have their orbital positions corrected to pretty much avoid falling
01:04out of the sky.
01:05In fact, one storm back in 2003 damaged power grids in Sweden and South Africa, leading
01:10to massive blackouts across both countries.