The ongoing solar storm will likely continue through the weekend, the Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday.
Several coronal mass ejections — waves of solar plasma that the sun belched out earlier this week — are in transit toward Earth. Those so-called CMEs are what’s causing the aurora and disruption on Earth.
Some communications could be interrupted, as well as GPS, power grids, spacecraft and satellite navigation. The SWPC said it is in touch with infrastructure operators to help them minimize the impact of the storm.
This geomagnetic storm is currently classified as a G5, or extreme storm. The last G5 event was the Halloween Storms in October 2003, the center said.
“That event resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa,” it said.