Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NASA scientists have said. [Photos of Huge Sunspot AR1520] An earlier center update released late Friday stated that the solar storm could trigger a level G2 geomagnetic storm on Earth, a moderate-level event capable of sparking auroras at latitudes as low as New York or Idaho, sometime after 9 a.m. EDT. Most northern lights displays, which occur when charged solar particle interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, are confined to high-latitude regions around the polar regions by the planet's magnetic field. "Weekend auroras are likely," the space weathertracking website Spaceweather.com wrote in an alert. The Space Weather Prediction Center is tracking AR1520, as well as several other active spots on the sun, for signs of more activity. "All eyes are on the solar wind data to note the expected passage on Saturday of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from Thursday's solar event," center officials wrote in an update late Friday (July 13).
The solar storm is not expected to pose a major risk to satellites and spacecraft in orbit, or power systems on Earth, officials have said. The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase in its 11-year sunspot cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and expected to peak in 2013.