Intense Northern Lights: First Signs of Solar Storm Strikes Earth (PHOTOS)

The geomagnetic storm AR 2741, the strongest on the planet in a year and a half, was fired early Tuesday, leaving the first signals in the form of aurora borealis visible from several points in the United States, such as New York. and Minnesota, reports in local media.

The geomagnetic index K, which quantifies the alterations of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field, reached high levels during the night of Monday, when "solar particles bombarded the Earth's atmosphere".

The solar storm pushed the auroral oval visible from south to north Minnesota. In addition, the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has issued a geomagnetic storm alert on May 15 and 16, which could result in more aurora borealis on the night of this tuesday. So far, three coronal mbad ejections (CMEs) have been recorded since last Friday's Friday. The first two should arrive this Wednesday and the last on Thursday.

According to Sergei Bogachov, senior scientist at the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences, AR 2741 is "a three-degree storm on a scale of one to five "," so "it is not a maximum event. "Solar storms of maximum intensity occur once every ten or twenty years," he said.

Bogachov explained that such phenomena cause aurora borealis and interference in radiocommunications, as well as problems in the electrical networks or the destabilization of satellite orbits. For his part, the Russian researcher warned that the storm could also negatively affect people sensitive to changes in the Earth's magnetic field.

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