The strongest solar radiation storm in 20 years is headed towards Earth

“This is the strongest solar radiation storm in more than 20 years. The last time an S4 storm occurred was in October 2003. The potential impact is mainly limited to spacecraft, aviation and satellite launch activities,” the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today on social network X. S4 is the near-highest level in the 5-level power scale of radiation storms. Sun.

SWPC notified airlines, NASA, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), North American Electric Reliability Corporation and other operators to find ways to respond to the storm. “We’ve been making a lot of calls to make sure every critical technology infrastructure operator knows what’s going on,” said forecaster Shawn Dahl at SWPC.

During times of increased radiation risk, astronauts on the space station can move to a better-shielded area. They have implemented this solution in previous solar storms, for example the geomagnetic storm that occurred in May 2024.

Increased radiation could also pose a risk to satellite systems that people use for communication and navigation. During the May 2024 incident, tractor company John Deere reported that some customers using GPS for farming were experiencing problems. But in general, operators maintain stable satellite operations in orbit, while controlling the buildup of strong electromagnetic currents in the power grid system.

According to Ryan French, a solar physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Atmospheric and Space Physics Laboratory, during this week’s solar radiation storm, satellite operators may need to take action, but it is unlikely that there will be a widespread technological impact on people.

Dahl said that a strong geomagnetic storm also hit the Earth at around 2:40 a.m. on January 20 (Hanoi time). While solar radiation storms mark the release of strongly charged particles, moving quickly towards Earth, geomagnetic storms move more slowly, originating from coronal eruptions (CMEs) – phenomena of plasma and magnetic fields ejected from the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere (coron).

Increased solar activity also causes the aurora to appear brighter. Specifically, energetic particles from the CME hit the Earth’s magnetic field, interact with gases in the atmosphere and create colorful bands of light in the sky. According to SWPC, this time the aurora can be observed in much of the northern United States, even spreading to Alabama and northern California.