Spectacular auroras were seen over Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Slovenia, Britain and other parts of Europe as the Earth was hit by the strongest solar storm in more than two decades on Friday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center said “the first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—the ejection of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun—came just after 1600 GMT.”
It was later upgraded to an “extreme” geomagnetic storm – the first since the so-called “Halloween storms” of October 2003, which caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa.
The agency said several more coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are expected to hit Earth in the coming days.
Netizens posted pictures of auroras from northern Europe and Australasia.
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Meanwhile, authorities have notified satellite operators, airlines and the grid to take precautions for potential disruptions caused by changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.
Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in about eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more leisurely pace, with officials putting the current average at 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second.
They came from a massive sunspot cluster 17 times wider than our planet. The Sun is approaching the peak of an 11-year cycle that brings increased activity.
Professor of space physics Mathew Owens told AFP that while the effects would largely be felt in the northern and southern latitudes of the planet, how far they spread would depend on the ultimate strength of the storm.
In the United States, that could include places like northern California and Alabama, officials said.
