Geometric Storms Expected To Hit Earth This Week, Power Grids At Risk

A series of potent solar events is expected to hit Earth, potentially causing significant geomagnetic storms over the next few days, NASA has said. The third storm, potentially the worst one, is expected to hit the planet this week on August 11. The Sun is currently unleashing a trio of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), with the first two originating from M-class solar flares on August 7.

While these initial CMEs are relatively minor, the third CME, propelled by an X1.3-class solar flare on August 8, is the most powerful. The third CME, from the highly active sunspot AR3777, produced an extreme ultraviolet flash captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

It caused a shortwave radio blackout affecting regions from North America to the Hawaiian Islands, disrupting signals below 30 MHz for up to an hour. Coronal mass ejections are massive bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields ejected from the Sun's corona. These eruptions release billions of tons of plasma into space, potentially disrupting Earth's magnetosphere and impacting satellites, communications and power grids.

Following the flare, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) detected a halo CME travelling directly toward Earth at speeds exceeding 1,000 km per second. This CME is expected to arrive by August 11, potentially intensifying the effects of the earlier CMEs. The combined impact of these solar events could elevate geomagnetic storm levels to category G3 (strong), potentially sparking mid-latitude auroras v.