Wild weather due to solar storm heading for Earth

 

Nasa image showing extreme ultraviolet wavelengths on Sun's surface:

Geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems and plane routes. storm was triggered by a pair of massive solar flares earlier this week which means there is a good chance of seeing the northern lights at higher latitudes, as the skies are clear.

"It's hitting us right in the nose," said Joseph Kunches, an expert at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).He described the storm as the Sun's version of Super Tuesday - in a reference to the US Republican primaries and caucuses in 10 states.

"Space weather has gotten very interesting over the past 24 hours," Mr Kunches added.
The charged particles are expected to hit Earth at 4,000,000 mph (6,400,000 km/h), and Noaa predicts the storm will last until Friday morning.Images of from the Sun's region where the flares happened show a complex network of sunspots indicating a large amount of stored magnetic energy.