July 17 (UPI) — U.S. forecasters have posted a watch for a possible “minor” geomagnetic storm hitting Earth following the eruptions of several powerful solar flares noted by Russian scientists over the weekend.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued the “G1” storm watch on Sunday following the observation of an “M-class” flare on the surface of the Sun on Saturday.
Russian observers at the Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics in Moscow, meanwhile, reported three M-class flares in rapid succession on Sunday, triggering concerns over the possibility of a 10-times more powerful “X-class” flare.
M-class flares are defined as medium-size events that are capable of causing brief blackouts of certain types of shortwave radio communications and are sometimes followed by radiation storms on Earth.
X-class flares, meanwhile, are capable of triggering planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.
NOAA analysts said computer modeling indicated the radiation storm heading toward Earth would likely arrive on Tuesday, but added there is “some uncertainty in the analysis that may see an earlier arrival on [Monday].”
The U.S. assessment of the possibility of a possible X-class flare remained “low” for early this week.
Scientists say that because the Sun is approaching the peak of its current solar cycle, the possibility of stronger flares is increasing. Some analysts believe the peak activity originally predicted for July 2025 is now coming earlier and may arrive as soon as mid-to-late 2024.
