by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
A series of enormous geomagnetic storms is about to start pummeling our planet, and some of the most important technologies that we depend on are potentially at risk. For the very first time in nearly 20 years, the NOAA has issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch. We were initially warned that “at least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections” were headed our direction, but now it is at least six. These coronal mass ejections originated from Sunspot AR3664, which has now become almost as large as the infamous Carrington sunspot of 1859. It is being reported that Sunspot AR3664 is nearly 200,000 kilometers wide. That is about 15 times wider than Earth. Six gigantic coronal mass ejections that have been unleashed by this sunspot will hit our planet over the next few days, but as you will see below, authorities won’t know their true power until Friday night.
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Until authorities know the true power of these storms, we won’t know how much danger we are facing.
Hopefully this will turn out to be a minor event.
But scientists are concerned enough already that they have issued the first severe geomagnetic storm watch since 2005…
A rare and powerful solar storm may occur in outer space today which could wreak havoc on earth, officials have warned – the first in nearly 20 years if it happens.
At least five streams of plasma, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are heading toward Earth, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue a severe geomagnetic storm watch for Friday into the weekend.
This is the first such alert aired since 2005 when Earth was hit with the highest dose of radiation in a half-century.
Another coronal mass ejection has been confirmed since the initial warning was issued, so at least six major storms are approaching our planet.
SIX SOLAR STORMS ON THEIR WAY TO EARTH pic.twitter.com/ruAlL5RGD4
— SpaceWeatherNews (@SunWeatherMan) May 10, 2024
Needless to say, a lot of people are wondering if our power grids could be at risk from these storms.
At this point, the NOAA is warning that during these storms “some protective systems may mistakenly trip out key assets from the power grid”…
Severe space weather can jeopardize power grids, according to NOAA, whose alert this week said to expect “possible widespread voltage control problems” and that “some protective systems may mistakenly trip out key assets from the power grid.”
In 1989, a space weather event led to a massive blackout in Quebec, Canada for more than nine hours after geomagnetic fluctuations damaged transformers and other important equipment.
In October, an extreme geomagnetic storm stronger than the one predicted for this weekend led to power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa, the SWPC said.
The largest known geomagnetic storm in history, known as the Carrington Event of 1859, caused telegraph stations to spark and catch fire.
If you lose power on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, there is a good chance that the power loss has been caused by one of these geomagnetic storms.
Authorities are telling us that it is not likely that we will experience a G5 event, but one official at the Space Weather Prediction Center has admitted to the press that he is anticipating a “big shock arrival”…
In a call with reporters on Friday, Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said that some CMEs “are catching up with other ones.” He said officials are expecting a “big shock arrival” when they hit Earth. Dahl said while officials aren’t predicting a G5 storm – the strongest of geomagnetic storms – they also can’t discount a “low-end G5 event.”
“We’re really buckling down here,” Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch, also said on the call.
But I want to emphasize that what they are telling us publicly is what they are guessing will happen.
The truth is that they don’t know anything for sure yet.
As CBS News has reported, the actual strength of these storms will not be known until they are about a million miles from our planet…
The true strength of the storm won’t be known until roughly 8 p.m. ET on Friday when the CMEs are about a million miles from Earth.
“When we see those arrive, that’s when we’ll know the intensity,” Dahl said.
So I would pay close attention to the news on Friday night.
This could turn out to be a relatively minor incident.
Or it could be the biggest solar disaster since the Carrington Event in 1859.
Or it could be somewhere in between.
Hopefully most of my readers are well prepared for any scenario.
The following comes directly from the official warning that the NOAA issued about these storms…
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) — a division of the National Weather Service — is monitoring the sun following a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that began on May 8. 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.
A large sunspot cluster has produced several moderate to strong solar flares since Wednesday at 5:00 am ET. 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. 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. Geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth. A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California.
As I detail in my most recent book, the sun has been exhibiting very strange behavior for quite some time.
And now solar activity appears to be reaching some sort of bizarre crescendo.
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