Taipei: The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a geomagnetic disturbance alert Monday, forecasting that the disturbance’s maximum intensity could briefly reach the level of a strong geomagnetic storm and will last 24 hours beginning at 2 a.m. Tuesday. The CWA warned that the storm could potentially cause temporary disruptions to satellite navigation as well as low/high frequency radio communications, while auroral activity could occur as far south as geomagnetic latitude 50 degrees.

According to Focus Taiwan, the solar-induced event is expected to begin at 2 a.m. with its intensity peaking at a G3 on the five-level G-scale, which is classified as “strong,” the national weather agency added. The G-scale is a five-level system developed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, with G1 representing a minor storm and G5 an extreme one. The U.S. center notes that G3-level storms are “infrequent, but not uncommon.”

The CWA explained that geomagnetic storms are caused when an eruption of solar material and magnetic fields — or a “coronal mass ejection” — arrives at Earth. It warned that while the event may briefly disrupt GPS and low/high frequency radio communications, other potential impacts include false alarms in some power grid protective devices, a buildup of electrical charge on satellite components, and drag on low-Earth orbit satellite. Regional changes on the Sun’s surface are already active, the CWA said, noting that it recorded a 10-minute disturbance in radio communications at 3:28 p.m. on Monday.