'Severe' geomagnetic storm slams Earth today

An enormous mass of charged solar particles will slam into our planet on October 10, likely triggering a "severe" G4-class geomagnetic storm, according to an alert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

Storms of this magnitude may disrupt power grids, nudge satellites off course, interfere with GPS navigation and damage "critical infrastructure technology," NOAA warns.

The geomagnetic storm will also make auroras visible at much lower latitudes than usual.

The solar outburst, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), is the result of a powerful solar flare that erupted from our star on October 8. The flare has been categorized as an X 1.8-class solar flare, which is the strongest type of flare the sun can emit.

Solar flares occur when tangled magnetic-field lines on the sun violently snap back into place. Some flares may be accompanied by CMEs - fast-moving blobs of plasma that can take several days to reach Earth, if our planet happens to be within the firing line.

Upon hitting our planet, CMEs can cause major disturbances in Earth's magnetic field known as geomagnetic storms, resulting in technological malfunctions and widespread auroras. NOAA measures geomagnetic storms on a scale of 1 to 5, with G1 storms considered "mild" and G5 storms dubbed "extreme."