The sky in Martinborough, New Zealand, has been lit up by the Aurora lights due to a large geomagnetic storm. This storm, caused by material from a sun spot hitting the Earth’s atmosphere, is one of the most severe in decades. However, experts say it is not an extreme event.
Transpower, the company in charge of the electricity grid, has made it more resilient to protect equipment. They had earlier issued a “grid emergency notice” but did not expect power supplies to be disrupted by the storm.
The storm reached G5, the highest level on the NOAA SWPC scale for geomagnetic storms. This makes it the largest storm of its kind in New Zealand for over a decade, but not as big as the ones in 2003 or 2001. Despite this, it has caused many stunning Aurora displays in the Northern Hemisphere.
Craig Rodger, a physics professor at Otago University, has been working with the electricity industry to understand the impacts of a severe solar storm on New Zealand’s electricity grid. He has been helping Transpower prepare for even larger events, which could induce thousands of amps of excess electrical current.
The effects of the current storm are expected to continue for the next 24 hours or so, peaking on Saturday afternoon and lasting until at least the end of Sunday.
