NOAA Issues Rare Warning Following Powerful Solar Event

NOAA Issues Rare , Warning Following Powerful , Solar Event.
CBS reports that a severe G4 geomagnetic storm
headed towards Earth has triggered a rare warning
from NOAA officials for the first time in two decades.
The warning comes following days of solar activity
that sent several waves of plasma in Earth's
direction along with powerful magnetic fields.
G4 storms are the second-strongest
type of geomagnetic storms and can
cause widespread voltage problems. .
NOAA warns that they can also cause some
protective assets to "trip out key assets from the grid,"
as well as cause orientation problems for spacecraft. .
If geomagnetic storms
were hurricanes, 'severe'
would be category 4. , Spaceweather.com, via CBS.
The powerful G4 storm could also cause
northern lights, or aurora borealis, to be seen
in northern California and as far south as Alabama.
In a May 9 press release, NOAA said that the solar
event began on May 8, when a group of sunspots
generated "several moderate to strong solar flares.".
According to NASA, solar flares are explosions of
radiation which are considered the strongest
explosive events in the solar system.
NOAA noted that the area, which
produced the recent flares, is roughly
16 times the diameter of the Earth.
The sunspots known as AR3664 measures about 124,000
miles across, and Space.com notes that it is one of the, "largest and most active
sunspots seen this solar cycle." .
According to NOAA, the geomagnetic storm
is expected to hit Earth as early as midday
on May 10 and continue through May 12