NOAA Confirms Incoming Solar Storm with Potential for Deadly Impact

Yesterday, news emerged about a powerful solar flare eruption occurring in the volatile sunspot region of AR3363, which unleashed a high-speed coronal mass ejection (CME) of significant intensity. However, uncertainty surrounded its trajectory towards Earth. Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast models have now confirmed that the CME will graze the Earth on July 19, but the potential impact of the ensuing solar storm remains uncertain.

According to a SpaceWeather.com report, “NOAA models confirm that a CME will graze Earth’s magnetic field on July 20. It came from yesterday’s powerful M6 eruption in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR3363.” The report further added that it is possible that the geomagnetic storm could reach G3- category strength.This could be one of the strongest storms of the year so far.

A solar storm is expected to hit Earth tomorrow

In April, Earth was hit by a G3 geomagnetic storm, which not only delayed the launch of a SpaceX rocket, but also forced Canadian oil rigs to suspend operations due to an increase in ambient static electricity. This could happen again tomorrow if a similar solar storm strikes. However, things could be even worse.

Such storms can cause more damage than usual. They can damage small satellites, affect mobile networks and GPS, and even pose a threat to ground-based electronics and power grids by vastly increasing the magnetic potential.

The aurora effect is also visible much further south than normal. It is not unusual to see the Northern Lights as far south as Oregon and Nebraska in the United States.

For now, we can only wait until tomorrow to find out if the CME will make contact and what kind of intensity it will bring.

Know the GOES-16 satellite

GOES-16, formerly known as GOES-R before it reached geostationary orbit, is the first of the GOES-R geostationary operational environmental satellites operated by NASA and NOAA. It was launched on November 19, 2016 and became operational on December 18, 2017. GOES-16 is located in geostationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean and provides continuous images and atmospheric measurements of the Earth’s Western Hemisphere. It also has a lightning mapper that can detect both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. GOES-16 is an important tool for weather forecasting, climate monitoring and space weather forecasting.