The Earth was hit by an intense solar storm that could bring the northern lights to night skies further south than normal, a US agency announced. Conditions of a level-four geomagnetic storm, on a scale of five, were observed Monday from 1500 GMT, according to a specialized center at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The new solar storm is caused by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are explosions of particles leaving the Sun. When these particles arrive on Earth, they disrupt its magnetic field.
