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NOAA says tonight's 'cannibal' solar storm could be worst in 165 YEARS and cause GPS and power outages - as they reveal exact time it'll hit
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Earth could suffer the worst solar storm in 165 years as six streams of plasma that erupted from the sun this week are set to make crash into our atmosphere tonight.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed today that the worst-case scenario would be what happened during the 1859 Carrington event, which set telegraph stations on fire, cutting communications worldwide. In our modern-day society, a geomagnetic storm of that magnitude could cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage to critical infrastructure. The event could also trigger magnificent nighttime auroras, or the northern lights, which will be visible in the US starting around 11pm ET and lasting through Saturday. Scientists will know how severe the storm will be at around around 8 pm ET when the explosions of plasma racing through space will be nearly one million miles from our planet - and NOAA plans to issue alerts immediately. Scientists have also predicted that three of the six streams, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), could combine to create a powerful 'cannibal CME.' Geomagnetic storms take place when high-energy particles released from solar flares ejected by the sun reach Earth. The sun is continuously erupting and hurling particles into space, but given that its 93 million miles from Earth, it rarely reaches us. 'We anticipate we will get one shock after another. We are really buckling down here,' Clinton Wallace, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), said during the Friday media briefing. While officials are predicting an event a step below than Carrington, which was a geomagnetic storm level 5 (G5), they are not discounting that we could reach a an event on the lower end of the same measurement that ranges from G1 to G5. Dahl explained that 165 years ago, auroras reached as far as Central America and Hawaii. He said 'we can, of course, not discount that we could reach kind of a low end.' When the sun emits a solar flare, it creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) similar to that of a nuclear bomb which in turn can disable or destroy all electronic equipment, including satellites. Earth has been hit with one of the streams of plasma already, as a space weather psychists told DailyMail.com that there could be five more on the way. Dr Tamitha Skov said NASA's satellite captured CME, determining it was a geomagnetic storm level 4 (G4) that is moving more than 400 miles per second. Skov said the storm could reach a G5 and as the other streams make their way toward Earth, she predicted things may not calm down until May 13. Dahl said during the media event that he and NOAA 'have not seen this in a long time, which is why they are giving special attention. 'We have discussed this with FEMA because they need to know, not that we are expecting a catastrophic collapse.' NOAA issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch late Thursday night, noting a a large sunspot cluster had produced several moderate to strong solar flares since Wednesday. Sunspots are cooler parts on the sun's surface caused by massive changes in our star's magnetic field. Often bigger than planets, sunspots appear dark on the sun's surface because they are cooler than other parts - although they're still very hot, around 6,500°F. 'This is an unusual and potentially historic event,' said Wallace. NOAA said that people should prepare as they would for a power outage - batteries, flash lights and generators. However, the agency has been in contact with infrastructure operators in preparation for the geomagnetic storm. '[People] won't have to do anything. And if everything's working like it should, will be stable they'll be able to go about their their daily lives,' said Steenburgh. 'You may get to see a fairly impressive aurora display.'
Posted by: Skidmark 2024-05-10 |
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