Digital News Report – Satellite communications and navigation equipment could be disrupted today, warned the United States Space Weather Prediction Center especially around the Polar regions. The Solar Radiation Storms in the past 24 hours and currently is at a S3 warning level.
The S3 warning includes a radiation hazard for astronauts and people in high-altitude airplanes. There could be wide ares of blackout of HF radio communication for the sunlit sides for around one hour, which could cause degraded navigation signals warn the SWPC especially around the Polar Regions.
Solar flares cause the Earth’s magnetic field to respond and this can create intense auroras, or Northern Lights. People living in Asia and Europe may see the colored streaked night sky.
The warning issued is considered strong, and is mostly likely to be of concern for people that need accuracy with navigation systems. The public probably will not be affected from the degradation of navigation signals of their GPS device.
The solar flare radiation will continue to bombard Earth’s magnetic field through Wednesday. Experts are reporting that this solar flare storm is the strongest since 2005.
By: Tim Edwards