Buckle up: An unusual amount of solar activity this week could disrupt some of the most important technologies society relies on.
On Thursday, the US government issued its first severe geomagnetic storm watch in nearly 20 years, advising the public of “at least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections” as well as sunspots covering an area 16 times wider than the earth itself. A severe geomagnetic storm, or G4, is the second-highest grade in the US government’s classification system.
Radiation from this activity will begin to hit Earth’s magnetic field on Friday and last through the weekend, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA’s severe space weather watch suggests the storm could trigger numerous effects for life on Earth, possibly affecting the power grid as well as satellite and high frequency radio communications.
Communications impacts
The solar activity NOAA’s talking about involves the release of energy from the sun that travels through space and eventually reaches Earth.
When that radiation hits the magnetic sphere surrounding the planet, it causes fluctuations in the ionosphere, a layer of the upper atmosphere.
Those changes can directly affect satellites and other spacecraft in orbit, altering their orientation or potentially knocking out their electronics.
Severe space weather can jeopardize power grids, according to NOAA, whose alert this week said to expect “possible widespread voltage control problems” and that “some protective systems may mistakenly trip out key assets from the power grid.”
As if to underscore that point, the US government’s advice to the public on how to prepare for a space weather event largely resembles the same steps you’d take in response to an extended power outage.
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