“Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface,” according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. But if the storm escalates to a G5, auroras could be visible across southern states and elsewhere around the world. Before then, the last G5 storm to hit Earth was in 2003, resulting in power outages in Sweden and damaging power transformers in South Africa. The solar storm in May was the most successfully mitigated space weather storm in history, Dahl said.

Source: CNN October 10, 2024 18:35 UTC