Solar storm to hit the Earth soon, may affect mobiles, GPS and air travel

According to the National Weather Service's (NWS), Space Weather Prediction Center, a G-1-class geomagnetic storm was to hit the Earth's atmosphere in July. The same sort of storm occurred around four years ago causing a blackout over the Atlantic region. 

These storms are not unusual, if you go back in history you will read about many such storms occurring over the years. According to a report by Space Weather, a great storm had hit the Earth in 1582. At that time people felt that the earth was about to end. Soares, a Portuguese writer of that time, wrote, "Only fire was visible in the northern sky for three nights everywhere. Every part of the sky seemed as if it had turned into flames. At midnight, rays of terrible fire emerged which were very terrifying and scary."

The storm originated from a hole that has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere. There are concerns this storm may cause a power failure around the world. 

"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. The last chance for contact is July 14," Spaceweather.com wrote on its official website.

Such storms can also lead to a blackout of high-frequency radio communication for nearly an hour in vast areas. Due to the solar storm, wind speeds could reach 500 km/s, triggering a geomagnetic storm and high latitude auroras. The strong winds can bring geomagnetic storms in the Earth's magnetosphere, which can affect mobiles, GPS, satellite TV, air travel etc.