a severe solar storm has smacked earth with a surprisingly big geomagnetic jolt, potentially affecting power grids and gps tracking while pushing the colorful northern lights farther south, federal forecasters said so far no damage has been reported two blasts of magnetic plasma left the sun on sunday, combined and arrived on earth about 15 hours earlier and much stronger than expected, said thomas berger, director of the space weather prediction center in boulder, colorado scroll down for video  where the aurora could be seen: forecasters said early tuesday, before sunrise, auroras were already seen in the northern tier of the us, such as washington state, north dakota, south dakota, minnesota and wisconsin the aurora borealis or northern lights that usually can be viewed only in the far north will dip south as a result of the storm, so more people should be able to enjoy the colorful sky show forecasters were not sure just how far south it would be visible forecasters said early tuesday, before sunrise, auroras were already seen in the northern tier of the us, such as washington state, north dakota, south dakota, minnesota and wisconsin they said there is 'very strong possibility' that the northern lights could be seen as far south as the middle united states, even tennessee and oklahoma  this storm ranks a 4, called severe, on the national oceanic and atmospheric administration's 1 to 5 scale for geomagnetic effects it is the strongest solar storm to blast earth since the fall of 2013 it's been nearly a decade since a level 5 storm, termed extreme, has hit earth forecasters figured it would come late tuesday night into wednesday morning; instead, it arrived just before 10 am edt they had forecast it to be a level 1 'it's significantly stronger than expected,' berger said forecasters had predicted a glancing blow instead of dead on hit another theory is that the combination of the two storms made it worse, but it's too early to tell if that's so, he said the storm seemed to be weakening slightly, but that may not continue, and it could last all day, officials said it has the potential to disrupt power grids but only temporarily it also could cause degradation of the global positioning system, so tracking maps and locators may not be as precise as normal often these types of storms come with bursts of radiation that can affect satellite operations, but this one has not, berger said but the most noticeable effect is usually considered a positive the aurora borealis or northern lights that usually can be viewed only in the far north will dip south, so more people should be able to enjoy the colorful sky show forecasters were not sure just how far south it would be visible the aurora borealis or northern lights that usually can be viewed only in the far north will dip south forecasters said early tuesday, before sunrise, auroras were already seen in the northern tier of the us, such as washington state, north dakota, south dakota, minnesota and wisconsin solar flares can damage satellites and have an enormous financial cost the charged particles can also threaten airlines by disturbing the earth’s magnetic field very large flares can even create currents within electricity grids and knock out energy supplies a positive aspect, from an aesthetic point of view, is that the auroras are enhanced geomagnetic storms are more disruptive now than in the past because of our greater dependence on technical systems that can be affected by electric currents forecasters said early tuesday, before sunrise, auroras were already seen in the northern tier of the us, such as washington state, north dakota, south dakota, minnesota and wisconsin space weather branch chief brent gordon said if the storm effects continued through tuesday evening, there was a 'very strong possibility' that the northern lights could be seen as far south as the middle united states, even tennessee and oklahoma that also means much of russia and northern europe, as far south as central germany and poland, had the potential for the sky show the sky has to be clear of clouds but the crescent moon will appear small enough it shouldn't interfere with viewing of the aurora is in the sky, gordon said space weather experts in colorado, us issued a warning on a solar flare last week it was the biggest eruption of the year and peaked at 422pm gmt yesterday (shown) solar flares can damage satellites and have an enormous financial cost the charged particles can also threaten airlines by disturbing the earth’s magnetic field very large flares can even create currents within electricity grids and knock out energy supplies a positive aspect, from an aesthetic point of view, is that the auroras are enhanced geomagnetic storms are more disruptive now than in the past because of our greater dependence on technical systems that can be affected by electric currents the aurora borealis or northern lights that usually can be viewed only in the far north will dip south, so more people should be able to enjoy the colorful sky show sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article
earth about 15 hours earlier tennessee sunday oklahoma the fall of 2013 the middle united states
it is the strongest solar storm to blast earth since the fall of 2013  two blasts of magnetic plasma left the sun on sunday  combined and arrived on earth about 15 hours earlier and  stronger  'very strong possibility' that the northern lights could be seen as far south as the middle united states, even tennessee and oklahoma 