Experts fear a massive geomagnetic storm, triggered by a blast of particles from the sun disrupts the Earth’s magnetic field, will arrive on New Year’s Day.
And the solar storm could knock out mobile phones, satellites, internet and TC, experts have warned.
The sun frequently ejects streams of solar material and magnetic fields into space, which is called coronal mass ejections. But bigger ones can pose a real hazard to modern life on Earth.
Brian Gaensler, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto, has said of this type of storm: “The concern here is that if the radiation from a solar flare hits the earth, it can knock out satellites, disrupt mobile phones, and other forms of communication.”
These ejections spark geomagnetic storm if they slam into the Earth’s magnetic field. These storms can spark auroras around the Arctic Circle and could disorient animals that use magnetic cues for navigation at high latitudes.
These storms can cause chaos by triggering alarms in power system equipment.
Doug Biesecker from NOAA has said: “The possibility of an extreme CME causing a very powerful geomagnetic storm is real.
“There’s considerable uncertainty to how frequent such storms are at the level where we worry about huge impacts on the power grid and the resulting impacts that a lack of electricity would have.
“Is it a one in 50, one in 100, or one in 1,000 year event? We just don’t know.”
The largest recorded geomagnetic storm in history occurred in 1859 and is called the Carrington Event, or sometimes the 1859 Solar Superstorm.
It disrupted telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America and auroras were seen in many parts of the world.
The storms even have the abilty to stop power supplies.
In 2015, the Government published a report into the risks to the UK of severe space weather.
It said an event such as a coronal mass ejection could wreak havoc across the world.