Wondering how a solar flare is formed? A large solar storm is headed for Earth at approximately 4.5 million miles per hour, with scientists calling it the strongest event in about six years. [REUTERS]
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Wondering how a solar flare is formed? A large solar storm is headed for Earth at approximately 4.5 million miles per hour, with scientists calling it the strongest event in about six years. [REUTERS]

A strong geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said. The storm, a big cloud of charged particles flung from the Sun at about 4.5 million miles per hour (7.2 million km per hour), was spawned by a pair of solar flares, scientists said. This is probably the strongest such event in nearly six years, and is likely more intense than a similar storm in late January, said Joseph Kunches, a space weather specialist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This solar disturbance is a three-stage affair, or as Kunches said in a telephone interview from Boulder, Colorado: “We hit the trifecta.” Read more: Strong solar storm heading for Earth
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A strong geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said.

The storm, a big cloud of charged particles flung from the Sun at about 4.5 million miles per hour (7.2 million km per hour), was spawned by a pair of solar flares, scientists said.

This is probably the strongest such event in nearly six years, and is likely more intense than a similar storm in late January, said Joseph Kunches, a space weather specialist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This solar disturbance is a three-stage affair, or as Kunches said in a telephone interview from Boulder, Colorado: “We hit the trifecta.”

Read more: Strong solar storm heading for Earth

A general view of the aurora borealis near the city of Tromsoe in northern Norway January 25, 2012. [REUTERS/Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/Scanpix]
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A general view of the aurora borealis near the city of Tromsoe in northern Norway January 25, 2012. [REUTERS/Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/Scanpix]