A severe geomagnetic storm could cause colorful auroras over Northern California and Alabama
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Colorful auroras could be visible in areas of the United States such as Alabama and Northern California — much farther south than they typically appear — on Thursday evening due to a powerful solar flare and coronal mass ejection released from the sun, according to the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
The severe solar storm, classified as a level 4 on a scale from 1 to 5, also could disrupt communications, the power grid and satellite operations, according to officials at the center.
The storm is expected to reach Earth between early morning and 12 p.m. ET Thursday, with the potential to last through Friday.
The intensity and full characteristics of the storm, moving toward Earth at more than 2.5 million miles per hour (about 4 million kilometers per hour), won’t be known until it reaches the Deep Space Climate Observatory and the Advanced Composition Explorer satellites orbiting 1 million miles from Earth.
The satellites will measure the speed and magnetic intensity of the storm, which is expected to arrive at Earth 15 to 30 minutes after reaching the space observatories, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Space Weather Prediction Center, at a news briefing Wednesday.
A series of the most intense type of solar flares, known as X-class flares, have released from the sun this week. The flares also coincided with coronal mass ejections on Tuesday.
Coronal mass ejections are large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere. When these outbursts are directed at Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms, or major disturbances of Earth’s magnetic field.
“Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface,” according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
As a result, the center has notified the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the North American power grid and satellite operators to prepare for disruptions, especially given the amount of preparations and expected relief efforts for Hurricane Milton, Dahl said.
Historically, G4 storms are common during a solar cycle, but G5, or extreme geomagnetic storms such the one that occurred on May 10, are incredibly rare, Dahl said. This new storm has a 25% chance of becoming a G5, he said.