US space weather monitors say a potent solar flare has unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the Polar Regions.
The event started late on Sunday with a moderate-sized solar flare that erupted near the centre of the Sun, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Centre.
“The flare itself was nothing spectacular, but it sent off a very fast coronal mass ejection travelling 4 million miles per hour (6.4 million kph),” he said.
A rush of radiation in the form of solar protons has already begun bombarding the Earth and is likely to continue through until the end of the week.
The radiation storm is the largest of its kind since 2005 but still ranks only a three on the scale of one to five, enough to be considered “strong” but not “severe,” Mr Biesecker said.
For instance, the storm could spell disruptions to airline flights, oil operations, Arctic exploration and space satellites.
“It’s the people who need GPS (global positioning system) accuracy of centimetres who have to worry, not people who want to know if you’re going to turn the car 30 metres ahead.”