Powerful Solar Flare Could Cause Disruptions to Electronic Systems

What Happened?

A powerful coronal mass ejection from the sun is headed towards Earth and could cause disruptions to telecommunications and electronics on Wednesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. The charged particles could also cause northern lights to be visible as far south as Florida in the continental United States.

NOAA officials issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Wednesday, November 12^th, at the G4 level, which is classified as severe. The scale goes from G1 to G5, and the effects of this geomagnetic storm are expected to continue through Thursday. 

Why it Matters

The coronal mass ejection is the strongest so far in 2025. According to Scientific American, a G4-level geomagnetic storm can cause potential interference to power grids, spacecraft operations, satellite navigation and radio communications. 

The charged particles can also affect living organisms, causing animals to exhibit abnormal behavior and even triggering headaches or nausea in humans. On the plus side, the northern lights may be visible across much of the continental United States through Thursday. 

Because the effects can be so widespread on communications infrastructure, space weather forecasting by the NOAA has been deemed a mission-critical function, which means it continued even during the federal government shutdown.

On Tuesday high frequency radio users on the sunlit side of Earth in parts of Africa and Europe experienced interference and disruptions to radio communications. These types of geomagnetic storms can also impact aviation routes and maritime communications. As geomagnetic storming increases, other effects can include global positioning systems accuracy issues, power‑grid voltage corrections, and increased satellite drag and orientation challenges, which can degrade satellite performance. 

The cause of the current geomagnetic storm was a large solar flare, which included coronal mass ejections, which emanated from the sun on Tuesday, November 11^th. Coronal mass ejections are large plumes of magnetized plasma, which then travel through the vacuum of space until they encounter objects, in this case, planet Earth. When the charged particles in the solar flare hit Earth’s atmosphere, they can cause the northern lights to brighten, but they can also interfere with electromagnetic emissions such as radio broadcasts. 

In 1859, the most powerful geomagnetic storm ever recorded caused the northern lights to be visible as far south as the Caribbean. Particles from that storm directly affected telegraph lines, causing some of them to shock their operators or even to catch fire. That geomagnetic storm became known as the Carrington Event. 

How it Affects You

For most people, geomagnetic storms pass unnoticed except for the increased visibility of the northern lights in places they aren’t often seen. The magnitude of this event makes it likely that temporary disruptions to electronics may be experienced during the daytime.