Solar storm causes rare northern lights displays
STORY: The biggest geomagnetic storm in two decades resulted in dazzling lights displays across large swathes of the Northern Hemisphere over the weekend.
Curtains of green, pink and purple lights, known as the northern lights or the Aurora Borealis, could be seen around the world from Russia to the United States, as well as in parts of Latin America, including a rare appearance in Mexico.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration described the event as “extreme” and warned on Saturday that the solar storm could pose risks to radio, GPS and satellite communications.
But Volker Bothmer, a leading astrophysicist at the University of Gottingen in Germany, said that while this solar storm is strong, it's not powerful enough to cause significant disruptions.
"In the consequences of an extreme storm, you can have a lot of problems with technology, infrastructure, communication, navigation systems and so on. But this storm was not so extreme that we really have to fear any severe damages."
Still, Elon Musk's satellite internet operation, Starlink, warned on Saturday of "degraded service."
Musk said earlier in a post on X that Starlink satellites orbiting Earth were under a lot of pressure but were holding up so far.
Geomagnetic storms are caused when explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun's corona are directed at Earth.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the current geomagnetic storm is likely to continue through Sunday.
