Weather Insider: Geomagnetic storm strikes Earth
Over the weekend, the Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch for March 24th and 25th. This comes after a coronal mass ejection (CME for short) was detected.
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A CME is a large ejection of plasma and charged particles from the sun's corona - its outermost layer. If Earth happens to be in the path of the CME, we experience a geomagnetic storm. While these storms do not usually have any physical impacts on humans, they can wreak havoc on electrical systems and high-frequency radio communications, like those used by air traffic controllers. These are not impacts our systems can't handle, so impacts are overall limited.
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One of the most noticeable impacts is a change to the auroras (northern and southern lights). The geomagnetic storm causes the northern and southern lights to become more intense and can extend much farther away from the poles.
![](https://kesq.b-cdn.net/2024/03/tonights_static_viewline_forecast.jpg)
Strong geomagnetic storms extend the auroras, but even in the most intense storms, Southern California isn't able to see the amazing phenomenon. A graphic highlighting the extent of the auroras from this storm can be seen above.