``It’s hitting us right in the nose,‘’ said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo.
The massive cloud of charged particles could disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas. But the same blast could also paint colorful auroras farther from the poles than normal.
Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.
The storm is part of the sun‘s normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach peak storminess next year. Solar storms don’t harm people, but they do disrupt technology. And during the last peak around 2002, experts learned that GPS was vulnerable to solar outbursts.
Because new technology has flourished since then, scientists could discover that some new systems are also at risk, said Jeffrey Hughes, director of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling at Boston University.
A decade ago, this type of solar storm happened a couple of times a year, Hughes said.
``This is a good-size event, but not the extreme type,‘’ said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the federal government‘s Space Weather Prediction Center.
The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the most noticeable effects should arrive here between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the space weather center. The effects could linger through Friday morning.
Center forecaster Rob Steenburgh said that as of 2:30 a.m. EST Thursday, there were no noticeable effects on Earth. But he said there were some indications from a satellite, which registered a slight rise in low energy particles.
The region of the sun that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. He said another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth right after this.
``This is a big sun spot group, particularly nasty,’‘ NASA solar physicist David Hathaway said. ``Things are really twisted up and mixed up. It keeps flaring.’‘
Storms like this start with sun spots, Hathaway said.
Then comes an initial solar flare of subatomic particles that resemble a filament coming out of the sun. That part already hit Earth only minutes after the initial burst, bringing radio and radiation disturbances.
After that comes the coronal mass ejection, which looks like a growing bubble and takes a couple days to reach Earth. It’s that ejection that could cause magnetic disruptions Thursday.
``It could give us a bit of a jolt,‘’ NASA solar physicist Alex Young said.
The storm follows an earlier, weaker solar eruption that happened Sunday, Kunches said.
For North America, the good part of a solar storm -- the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights -- will peak Thursday evening. Auroras could dip as far south as the Great Lakes states or lower, Kunches said, but a full moon will make them harder to see.
Auroras are ``probably the treat we get when the sun erupts,‘’ Kunches said.
Still, the potential for problems is widespread. Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. This is an unusual situation, when all three types of solar storm disruptions are likely to be strong, Kunches said. That makes it the strongest overall since December 2006.
That means ``a whole host of things‘’ could follow, he said.
North American utilities are monitoring for abnormalities on their grids and have contingency plans, said Kimberly Mielcarek, spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a consortium of electricity grid operators.
In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.
Solar storms can also make global positioning systems less accurate and cause GPS outages.
The storm could trigger communication problems and additional radiation around the north and south poles -- a risk that will probably force airlines to reroute flights. Some already have done so, Kunches said.
Satellites could be affected, too. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the space agency isn‘t taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the International Space Station from added radiation.
<한글기사>
강력 태양폭풍, 지구 전자기망 교란 전망
지난 5년 사이 최대의 태양 폭풍이 일어나 이르면 8 일 오후 3시(한국시간)부터 지구의 송전망이나 위성통신위치확인시스템(GPS) 등 각 종 전자기망과 항공 교통이 크게 교란될 수 있다고 미국 당국이 밝혔다.
미국 우주환경예측센터(SWPC)는 태양 표면에서 미국시간으로 6일 밤 두드러진 폭발이 일어났으며 이로인한 태양폭풍이 9일까지 계속될 수 있다고 전망했다.
전문가들은 이번 태양폭풍으로 중앙아시아의 일부 지역에서는 북극권에서나 볼 수 있는 오로라를 8일 밤에 볼 수도 있을 것이라고 밝혔다.
일부 항공사들은 이미 이 기간에 북극권을 통과하는 항공편의 항로를 일부 변경 했다.
미국해양대기국의 전문가 조 쿤치스는 이번 태양폭풍이 지구를 강타할 것이라고 말했다.
그는 지구가 지난해 8월에 심각한 통신망 두절 현상을 겪었지만 이번 태양 폭풍 이 2006년 12월의 태양 폭풍 이후 가장 강력한 것이 될 수 있다고 예상했다.
