here is no massive solar storm headed for Earth, despite some recent reports to the contrary, but aurora chasers are still expecting a good show this weekend, due to the effects of an immense coronal hole, and a strange phenomenon known as ‘equinox cracks’.
In the past, large-scale geomagnetic events have disrupted communication satellites and caused blackouts.
According to The Sun, this latest magnetic storm is being described as “minor” by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the NOAA has issued a storm warning via Twitter saying that the storm will be in effect today and tomorrow. The magnetic storm was created last week by an explosion in the Sun’s atmosphere known as a solar flare, which caused charged particles from the flare to make their way to Earth. The storm’s arrival coincides with the formation of ‘equinox cracks’ in the Earth’s magnetic field, which form around the equinoxes on March 20 and September 23 every year.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center is currently forecasting a G1 geomagnetic storm for the nights of March 14 and March 15, due to the effects of the solar wind – the constant stream of charged particles that flows outward from the Sun.