Strong solar storm could disrupt communications and produce northern lights in US
Source: AP
By MARCIA DUNN
Updated 10:02 AM CDT, May 10, 2024
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) An unusually strong solar storm headed toward Earth could produce northern lights in the U.S. and potentially disrupt communications this weekend.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch the first in nearly 20 years. The watch starts Friday and lasts all weekend.
NOAA said the sun produced strong solar flares beginning Wednesday, resulting in five outbursts of plasma capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth. Each eruption known as a coronal mass ejection can contain billions of tons of solar plasma.
NOAA is calling this an unusual event, pointing out that the flares seem to be associated with a sunspot thats 16 times the diameter of Earth. An extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003 took out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa. ................
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/solar-storm-flares-eruption-sun-fc23251025efc2d20dc128dc0b6a7c68
So--we might have some outages this weekend.
https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/ec1abdd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x682+0+171/resize/980x653!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fe6%2Ff7%2F922e9dc7c307254c367204c8120b%2F647cbdd5085c45dba38e8682cd5bc97b
This image provided by NASA shows a solar flare, as seen in the bright flash in the lower right, captured by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory on May 9, 2024. A severe geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for Earth starting Friday and lasting all weekend _ the first in nearly 20 years. (NASA/SDO via AP)