Severe solar storm expected to impact Earth Thursday

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- A powerful solar storm is racing toward Earth and expected to arrive on Thursday, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

A fast coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the sun Tuesday evening, and is expected to arrive at and impact Earth as early as the morning to midday on Thursday, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

Weather forecasters have issued a G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm Watch. The speed of this CME is estimated to reach 1,300 kilometers per second, according to NOAA.

The aurora may become visible over much of the northern half of the United States, and maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California, according to NOAA.

CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun's corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth.