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No Major Solar Storm That We Know of, NOAA Says

No Major Solar Storm That We Know of, NOAA Says
This August, 19, 2004, NASA Solar and Heliospheric Administration (SOHO) image shows a solar flare erupting from giant sunspot 649. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

By    |   Wednesday, 14 March 2018 01:25 PM EDT

No, a major solar storm will not hit earth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said amid widespread reports of a "massive magnetic storm."

Bob Rutledge, lead of operations for NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, confirmed this with Fox News.

"It's very quiet," he said. "There's no sun spots right now. For the major solar storms, you're going to need a really large sun spot region to be the source of the eruption."

Rutledge is addressing recent reports claiming that major solar, or geomagnetic, storms would batter Earth over the next few days and cause power outages caused by "equinox cracks" appearing in Earth's magnetic field, leaving everyone vulnerable, Mashable said.

However, these reports are dramatized and misunderstood.

"This story is not plausible in any way, shape or form," Rutledge, told Newsweek.

At most, a minor geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for March 14 and 15 and experts are predicting the lowest level solar storm, a G1-level storm, to strike, according to NOAA.

This could cause very weak power grid fluctuations and minor disruptions to satellite operations such as GPS signals and communications signal, according to Science Alert.

Rutledge told Fox News that there was no cause for concern.

"We have some very low level G-1 storms predicted for later this week," he said. "G-1 is the lowest of our geomagnetic storm scale – that comes with, frequently, no effect."

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TheWire
Widespread reports of a massive magnetic storm are off the mark, and no such storm is expected to hit Earth this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
major, solar, storm, noaa
238
2018-25-14
Wednesday, 14 March 2018 01:25 PM
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