Starlink, the satellite arm of US billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, on Saturday warned of a “deterioration in service quality” as the Earth is hit by the worst geomagnetic storm caused by solar activity in two decades.
Starlink outages
Starlink owns approximately 60% of the 7,500 satellites orbiting the Earth and is the dominant player in satellite internet.
Thousands of Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to transmit data between each other in space, allowing the network to provide Internet coverage around the world.
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A statement on the company's website reads: “Starlink is currently experiencing service issues. Our team is conducting an investigation”.
Earlier, Elon Musk himself said in a post on the X website (formerly Twitter) that Starlink satellites are carrying excess load.
— There is a strong geomagnetic solar storm happening right now. The strongest in a long time. Starlink satellites are under intense pressure, but so far they are holding up — he wrote.
Geomagnetic storm
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the storm was the strongest since October 2003 and was likely to persist through the weekend, posing a threat to navigation systems, power grids and satellite navigation, among other services.
In parallel with this, residents of Ukraine, as well as a number of other countries in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, could observe phenomena reminiscent of the northern lights.
— Most people on planet Earth won't have to do anything, — said Rob Steenburgh, a scientist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.
According to representatives of the US National Atmospheric Research Administration, the storm may also cause northern lights in the southern United States. However, it is difficult to predict, and experts stress that it will not be the dramatic curtains of color usually associated with the northern lights, but rather splashes of greenish hues.
This storm poses a danger to high-voltage power lines, not the electrical lines that are usually found in people's homes, writes the Telegraph, which spoke to experts. Satellites could also be damaged, which in turn could disrupt navigation and communications services on Earth.
For example, in 2003, during a strong geomagnetic storm in Sweden, electricity was cut off, and power transformers were damaged in South Africa.
