Solar storm mania makes headlines

According to many media sources, a massive solar storm is supposed to be ravaging Earth today. Some MSM channels, and several well-known alternative, went as far as posting fake news about a 'massive X-class solar flare hitting Earth' today.

While at one point it seemed like we are living in some parallel universe, one leg here and the other somewhere else, or experiencing a mandella effect in real-time, it looks like it was all just one big clickbait campaign.

Some participants in this campaign are also calling for a 'huge' / 'massive' / 'major' geomagnetic storm on March 18. Such stories started circulating online at the beginning of the month. An interesting connection here is that they claim that Russian Academy of Sciences is the source of this dire warning. But it's not. They or labs under RAS never said anything about it. The closest to this is a 27-day geomagnetic storm forecast with a minor G1 storm on the 18^th.

"The stories are overblown," Dr. Tamitha Skov said, referring to fake news stories about a massive solar storm that is supposed to be ravaging Earth today.

"Indeed a solar storm is hitting Earth now due to some fast solar wind from a coronal that has rotated into the earth-strike zone this week, but storming is expected to be mild and sporadic, causing minor inconveniences for GPS users, emergency responders, and amateur radio operators," she said. 

Learn the real truth about the strength of the solar storm hitting thus far, where and when its possible to see aurora, catch up on photos from the last solar storm, and see and what else the Sun has in store this week in her latest Solar Storm Forecast:

Video courtesy Dr. Tamitha Skov

Featured image: Geoeffective coronal hole on March 13, 2018. Credit: NASA/SDO