By Dean Murray via SWNS
A gigantic sunspot 15 times wider than Earth could cause chaos this week.
The U.S. government has released a warning to brace for severe solar storms that may knock out communications, the electric power grid, and navigation.
The sunspot AR3664, stretching 124,000 miles wide according to Spaceweather.com, has released intense bursts of energy and radiation in the direction of our planet in the form of X-class solar flares, which are the most powerful.
America’s official Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) say they are monitoring the sun following the series of flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that began on Wednesday.
They report: “Space weather forecasters have issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for the evening of Friday, May 10. Additional solar eruptions could cause geomagnetic storm conditions to persist through the weekend.”
SWPC says a large sunspot cluster has produced several moderate to strong solar flares since 5am on Wednesday.
They add: “At least five flares were associated with CMEs that appear to be Earth-directed. SWPC forecasters will monitor NOAA and NASA’s space assets for the onset of a geomagnetic storm.”
CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth.
In a statement Thursday (May 9), SWPC warned: “Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations.
“SWPC has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action.”
However, SWPC adds there is a benefit to geomagnetic storms in that they can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth.
They say: A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California.”
The Sun’s activity was observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. Its mission is to study the Sun’s dynamics to “increase understanding of the nature and sources of solar variability”.
SDO documents the outer atmosphere of the Sun – called the corona – as well as hot flare plasma.
