Huge Solar Power Could Disrupt Power, GPS and more..

Article below is adopted from thestar.com. Just a friendly reminder, if you are having problems with your GPS, sit back and relax. All should be fine as soon as the solar storm is gone! =] 

 "WASHINGTON—The largest solar storm in five years has engulfed Earth, but scientists say the planet has lucked out so far.

The storm arrived more peacefully Thursday morning than it could have. Scientists say that could change as the storm spends the day shaking the planet's magnetic field. It could disrupt technology but also spread colourful Northern Lights.

The storm started with a massive solar flare earlier in the week and grew as it raced outward from the sun. The storm arrived at Earth about 6 a.m. EST.

So far officials say there have been no reports of problems with power grids, GPS, satellites or other technologies that are often disrupted by solar storms.

The storm is part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach peak storminess next year. Solar storms don't harm people, but they do disrupt technology. And during the last peak around 2002, experts learned that GPS was vulnerable to solar outbursts.

Because new technology has flourished since then, scientists could discover that some new systems are also at risk, said Jeffrey Hughes, director of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling at Boston University.

“This is a good-size event, but not the extreme type,” said Bill Murtagh, program co-ordinator for the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.

The sun erupted Tuesday evening, according to forecasters at the space weather centre. The effects could linger through Friday morning.

Storms like this start with sun spots, NASA solar physicist David Hathaway said.

Then comes an initial solar flare of subatomic particles that resemble a filament coming out of the sun. That part already hit Earth only minutes after the initial burst, bringing radio and radiation disturbances.

After that comes the coronal mass ejection, which looks like a growing bubble and takes a couple days to reach Earth.

North American utilities are monitoring for abnormalities on their grids and have contingency plans, said Kimberly Mielcarek, spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a consortium of electricity grid operators.

In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.

Solar storms can also make global positioning systems less accurate and cause GPS outages.

Satellites could be affected, too. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the space agency isn't taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the International Space Station from added radiation."