A HIGH-SPEED solar wind is expected to hit the Earth today, with particles from a hole in the sun moving at over one million miles per hour.
Although the effects are likely to be minor, the sun’s power will still be felt.
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Spaceweather.com says the wind is flowing at 1.3million mph from a hole in the sun’s atmosphere and is buffeting the planet’s magnetosphere.
In layman’s terms, NASA says a magnetosphere is the region around a planet, dominated by its own magnetic field.
Forecasters say there is a slight chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms while Earth is inside the stream, per Spaceweather.
That could cause power grid fluctuations and slight disruption to satellites.
And human’s aren’t the only ones that might be affected.
Migratory animals might also be disrupted if they fly at higher altitudes, with the solar particles throwing them off course.
It’s also possible there could be an aurora, also known as polar lights, is commonly visible at high latitudes including northern Michigan and Maine.
An aurora is usually seen when electrons reaching Earth’s thin upper atmosphere, collide with nitrogen and oxygen molecules, sending them into an excited state.
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When the electrons calm down they release colorful lights that are visible to the naked eye in high-latitude regions.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the solar wind continuously flows outward from the sun and consists mainly of protons and electrons in a state known as a plasma.
A solar magnetic field is embedded in the plasma and flows outward with the solar wind.
Different regions on the sun produce solar wind of different speeds and densities.
Coronal holes produce solar wind of speeds up to nearly 1.8million mph.
The North and South poles of the sun have large, persistent coronal holes, so high latitudes are filled with fast solar wind.
In the equatorial plane, where Earth and the other planets orbit, the most common state of the solar wind is the slow speed wind, with miles about half of those of the coronal variety, per NOAA.
The agency says during quiet periods, the current sheet can be nearly flat.
However, as solar activity increases, the solar surface fills with active regions, coronal holes, and other complex structures, which modify the solar wind and current sheet.
Per NOAA, because the sun rotates every 27 days, the solar wind becomes a complex spiral of high and low speeds and high and low densities that looks like the skirt of a twirling ballerina.
When high speed solar wind overtakes slow speed wind, it creates wind with very high densities and strong magnetic fields.
Earlier this week a solar flare hit Earth.
The flares can also cause geomagnetic solar storms, which result in natural light displays like the blue and green Northern Lights.
