Powerful solar storm lights up skies with auroras in multiple countries

Since Friday evening, Earth has been under the influence of a “strong” solar storm, the first of its kind since 2003, which has illuminated the skies with auroras in North America and several other countries.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that the strength of the geomagnetic storm is level 5 on a scale of five, which is classified as “extreme,” and is expected to last throughout the weekend.

The agency has also said that “the Global Positioning System (GPS), power grids, spacecraft, satellite navigation, and other technologies” could be affected, noting that the storm is caused by “eruptions of charged particles and magnetic fields from the sun.”

According to the same source, the last time a storm of this intensity was recorded was in October 2003. It caused power outages in several countries at that time.