Severe Solar Storm Warning: US Space Weather Forecast Center Issues G4 Alert After 20 Years

A severe solar storm is heading for Earth and that could cause problems. The US Space Weather Forecast Center has issued a warning in the G4 category, the second highest warning level, for the first time in 20 years. The storm could arrive Friday night and last until Sunday. The risk of a solar storm in wind storms, unlike a normal storm, is not in the failure of electronic equipment due to radiation.

Rob van den Berg, from the Sonnenborgh Observatory, calls the solar storm special. (…) ‘Solar material is being burned from the sun. These are electrical particles that cause a current to flow through cables, computers and electrical equipment.’ These electric particles generate electricity by themselves. A device that isn’t plugged in can still be electric, says Van den Berg. He talks about the Carrington Event in 1859, when there was a G5 storm. Because such a high current flowed through the telegraph links, telegraph houses caught fire. “This caused telegraph operators to receive electric shocks. If a G5 storm were to hit now, computers and electrical systems could burn out. This G4 storm includes power outages, navigation systems and high frequency radios.’

A spaceship can be thrown off course by a solar storm. People are protected from direct effects by the planet’s magnetic field, but all kinds of disturbances can happen and, for example, suddenly pipes can be electrified. Planes that normally fly over the North Pole are being diverted to protect the inhabitants from radiation. There is not much to do against the solar storm. Just an hour to an hour and a half before the phenomenon reaches Earth, it will be clear how powerful it will be.

Thanks to the solar storm, the Northern Lights may be visible in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere this weekend.

Space.com reports that it has been restless in the nearby area all week. Kasper van Dam of the KNMI warning already last month for the effect of increased solar activity: “Something is coming, but the forecasts are much more uncertain than normal weather. So I don’t know when it will reach Earth and how intense it will be .”