A huge ball of plasma and its magnetic field ejected by the Sun will impact the Earth this Thursday morning, which could trigger the northern lights, United States meteorologists announced.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States issued a severe geomagnetic storm warning for Thursday and Friday, after a solar flare was detected earlier in the week.
Such a storm could temporarily disrupt power supplies, radio signals and GPS positioning systems.
NOAA has notified power plant operators and orbiting spacecraft to take precautions.
Forecasters do not expect the solar storm to surpass the one that hit Earth last May, considered the strongest in more than two decades.
However, they won’t know for sure until the storm is 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, where spacecraft can observe its path and measure it.
The storm may also trigger the northern lights as far south in the United States as the lower Midwest and northern California, although the exact locations and timing are uncertain, according to NOAA.
The May solar storm produced dazzling auroras across the Northern Hemisphere and caused no major disruption.
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