00:00Another day, another massive solar storm headed our way, all as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year solar cycle.
00:11This is the result of the sun releasing a coronal mass ejection, sending a massive ball of plasma through space at speeds upwards of 2.5 million miles an hour.
00:20That means the particles and accompanying geomagnetic storm are expected to arrive at our atmospheric doorstep on Thursday, October 10th at around noon Eastern Time.
00:30The Space Weather Prediction Center now says we're in for a G4-level geomagnetic storm.
00:34But what does that mean?
00:35Well, first, it means your chances of seeing an aurora are much higher even at lower latitudes.
00:40They say residents as far south as Northern California and Alabama might get a peak at one of them.
00:45A rarity indeed.
00:46However, they add it could also cause serious problems for our civilizations, communications, and electrical systems.
00:52Back in May, Earth was hit with a G5-level storm.
00:55That one caused major disruptions to our GPS systems, with authorities saying that some 5,000 satellites had to have their orbital positions corrected to pretty much avoid falling out of the sky.
01:05In fact, one storm back in 2003 damaged power grids in Sweden and South Africa, leading to massive blackouts across both countries.
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