What is a geomagnetic storm and how does it affect earth?
In: Planetary Science
The Sun is constant spewing out charged particles. A storm is a higher concentration of those particles. When they reach Earth they interact with Earth’s magnetic field. Normally the aurora is only visible quite far North and South near the poles. During a storm the aurora stretches towards the equator allowing way more people to see it.
An extremely powerful storm can affect stuff on the surface. The Carrington event was a geo storm that burned out telegraph systems and such by overloading them. More recently Quebec was affected by a storm and lost power in areas.
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