An NOAA rendering shows where the Earth's pole will receive the brunt of the G4 (severe) geomagnetic storm. Photo by NOAA/SWPC
WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- A severe solar storm has already collided with Earth, according to reports from NOAA. Electromagnetic activity is expected to continue to hit the Earth's upper atmosphere for several more hours, resulting in the high probability of auroras being visible in higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere on Tuesday night.
The solar storm arrived just two days after a pair of coronal mass ejections were seen leaping from the solar surface into space on Sunday, March 15.
Though the bulk of the storm hit the Earth's magnetosphere and upper atmospheric layers at approximately 10 a.m. EST, the arrival of electromagnetic waves was already resulting in colorful displays early Tuesday morning.
Bright green and purple tinted auroras were spotted just before sunrise in the skies of several northern U.S. states, including Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.
What the NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center had, only a day ago, forecasted to be only a minor storm, turned out to rank as a G4 geomagnetic storm -- on a scale of 1 to 5.
"Our models showed we were just going to receive a glancing blow from this cloud coming off the sun," Thomas Berger, the prediction center's director, told the Baltimore Sun. "We are now thinking we caught more than just a glancing blow."
The storm is the strongest recorded during the current solar cycle, an 11-year period that loosely governs the sun's expected electromagnetic output. The last G4 event happened in 2013.
While no disruptions have been reported yet, it's possible the ongoing bombardment of electromagnetic waves could disrupt GPS and communications systems.
The best place in North America to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, on Tuesday night will be in Alaska and Canada, but it's possible that auroras will light up skies as far south as New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
