Reuters) - The strongest geomagnetic
storm in more than six years was forecast to
hit Earth's magnetic field on Tuesday, and it
could affect airline routes, power grids and
satellites, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction
Center said.
A coronal mass ejection - a big chunk of the
Sun's atmosphere - was hurled toward Earth
on Sunday, driving energized solar particles
at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km
per second), about five times faster than
solar particles normally travel, the center's
Terry Onsager said.
"When it hits us, it's like a big battering ram
that pushes into Earth's magnetic field,"
Onsager said from Boulder, Colorado. "That
energy causes Earth's magnetic field to
fluctuate."
This energy can interfere with high
frequency radio communications used by
airlines to navigate close to the North Pole in
flights between North America, Europe and
Asia, so some routes may need to be shifted,
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