Solar storm to hit Earth today, likely to impact cellphone, GPS signals worldwide

Solar winds gathering high speed is likely hit Earth on Wednesday, as per a report by Spaceweather.com. It was earlier predicted to reach our planet sometime between Sunday and Monday (July 11 to 12).

(Image courtesy: NASA)

New Delhi: Solar winds described as a stream of highly charged particles from the Sun will likely hit Earth on Wednesday (July 14), as per a report by Spaceweather.com. It was earlier predicted to reah our planet sometime between Sunday and Monday (July 11 to 12). 

"A high speed stream of solar wind that was supposed to arrive on July 11 is almost 3 days overdue... The stream is flowing from a hole in the sun's atmosphere so broad that a miss seems unlikely. Last chance for contact is July 14," Spaceweather.com wrote on its official website. Such an event could disrupt satellite operations and result in power outages.

These solar winds are streams of charged particles or plasma that erupt from the Sun and out into space and it could likely to trigger a minor solar storm in the Earth's magnetosphere - a region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field, which could adversely affect cellphone, GPS signals worldwide, space weather forecasters have cautioned.

In an earlier post Spaceweather.com had cautioned, "A high-speed stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. Flowing from an equatorial hole in the sun’s atmosphere, wind speeds could top 500 km/s. Full-fledged geomagnetic storms are unlikely, but lesser geomagnetic unrest could spark high latitude auroras.”

The "high-speed" stream is a result of a hole in the Sun's atmosphere and it is spewing a stream of solar wind in Earth's direction. While, NASA estimates these winds top, on average, speeds of about one million miles per hour but can go faster.