(11 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Markville, Minnesota - 10 May 2024
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various aurora borealis above trees and lakes
STORYLINE:
A strong solar storm dazzled sky gazers with an unusually strong northern lights display across much of the Midwestern United States.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning when a solar outburst reached Earth on Friday afternoon, hours sooner than anticipated.
The effects were due to last through the weekend and possibly into next week.
NOAA alerted operators of power plants and spacecraft in orbit to take precautions, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The sun has produced strong solar flares since Wednesday, resulting in at least seven outbursts of plasma.
Each eruption - known as a coronal mass ejection - can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth, according to NOAA.
It’s all part of the solar activity that’s ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle.
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