(insert burping sound here)

Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colorado observed a geomagnetic storm yesterday which they classified as an "extreme event measuring G-5". That's the highest level on the NOAA Space Weather Scale. In BDS terms, it means the sun just let rip one hell of a burp that could potentially disrupt systems around the world.

According to NOAA, "this event registered a 9 on the K-Index, which measures the maximum deviation of the Earth's magnetic field in a given three-hour period." The scale ranges from 0 to 9 and, because 9 is the highest rating available, this is one significant event.

Geomagnetic storms occur when bubbles of charged gas erupt off the sun (not unlike the gas heard at the last poker party). Unless we're mistaken and corrected by any lurking astrophysisists, these are called coronal mass ejections (or CMEs).

Possible impacts from such a geomagnetic storm include widespread power system voltage control problems, some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts and transformers may experience damange. Spacecraft operations may experience extensive surface charging and there may be problems with orientation and/or uplink/downlink tracking of satellites. Satellite navigation may be degreaded for days and low-level frequency radio navigation can be out for hours. Reports received by the NOAA Space Environment Center indicate that such impacts have already been observed.

Want proof? Here's a picture snapped by SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite. Besides being the most prolific discoverer of comets in astronomical history (well over 620 to date), it also takes pictures of the sun and, as a result, coronal mass ejections, too. Here's what it saw yesterday and tell us this isn't a damn cool picture:



And here's an equally killer X-ray image as taken by the GOES-12 Solar X-Ray Imager:



If, for whatever reason, this blog crazy goes dan updates no there are awhile for blame sun the.