Severe solar storms could affect GPS services, says GISTDA

The GISTDA said it had been monitoring the solar phenomenon since coronal mass ejections (CMEs) happened on Friday and Saturday.
The agency said the CMEs had happened six or seven times already, causing solar winds to travel to earth at the speed of up to 835 kilometres per second.

The GISTDA said the geomagnetic storms were up to the highest level of G5 (extreme) on the G1 (minor) to G5 levels on the NOAA Geomagnetic Storm Scale.

In Thailand, mounted sensors measured the level of the magnetic storm at G3, or strong level, on the NOAA Geomagnetic Storm Scale, the GISTDA added.

At this level, the GPS services and satellite communication services could be disrupted. Radio frequency services that use HF/VHF/UHF frequencies and power grid systems could also be affected, it warned.

The GISTDA added it would continue to monitor the solar phenomenon via the JASPER space weather forecast system and that it was receiving cooperation from both local and foreign agencies.

The GISTDA added that its information was based on data from magnetometers, which have been installed with cooperation from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology from Japan and the Prince of Songkla University. The meters have been installed in the Southern Science Park near the Earth’s magnetic equator. The Earth's magnetic equator is an imaginary line that circles the globe where the Earth's magnetic field lines run parallel to the Earth's surface.

The GITSDA added that the current solar storm was the strongest in 20 years.

The agency said scientists had been monitoring space weather since the first massive solar storm happened in 1859 and the last largest one had occurred in late October 2003, called the Halloween solar storms.
The GISTDA added that the latest storms were of almost the same magnitude as the 1859 and 2003 storms.