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Solar storm heading to Earth could disrupt communications and bring northern lights to California

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Solar storm heading to Earth could disrupt communications and bring northern lights to California

MSN.COM
By Corinne Purtill
May 10, 2024

A different kind of storm could complicate this weekend’s plans.

For the first time since January 2005, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch for Friday evening.

The category G4 watch from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center signals the possibility that a concentration of energy flaring from the Sun could disturb our planet’s electromagnetic field once it reaches Earth.

A geomagnetic storm of this size could disrupt communications, like the 2003 event that caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged South Africa’s power grid.

More promisingly, super-charged collisions of solar energy into the gas of our atmosphere creates the dazzling phenomena of aurora borealis, or the northern lights. Typically confined to polar regions, the colorful display could be visible this weekend as far south as Northern California.

“We have a very rare event on our hands,” space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl of SWPC said during a news conference Friday morning.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/other/solar-storm-heading-to-earth-could-disrupt-communications-and-bring-northern-lights-to-california/ar-BB1maXTo

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