Solar storm from giant hole in sun's atmosphere heading straight for earth.
Earth is expected to be hit by a moderate-strength geomagnetic storm on September 4 as solar wind escapes from a huge hole in the sun's atmosphere.
A NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory image of the sun on September 2, 2022. This image shows the dark coronal hole CH20+.© NASA/SDO/AIA
On Thursday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) warned that a G2-level geomagnetic storm was "likely" to occur this Sunday.
A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance to Earth's magnetosphere—the region surrounding the Earth that is dominated by our planet's magnetic field.
The magnetosphere can be disturbed whenever the sun shoots material our way, such as a stream of charged particles known as solar wind.
These interactions between solar material and the magnetosphere produce intense currents and heat up the upper regions of our atmosphere. This can have all sorts of effects, including increasing drag on satellites in low-Earth orbit, altering the path of radio signals and creating satellite navigation errors, and even creating harmful currents in electricity grids on the ground. These interactions can also cause colorful auroras in the sky.
Source: Newsweek