A solar storm is expected to hit Earth on WEDNESDAY

Earth is under a solar storm warning for August 3 as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announces there is a possibility of a small G1 class geomagnetic storm hitting our planet.

A G-1 storm can weaken power grid fluctuations, affect satellites and potentially trigger auroras in regions around the North Pole – in which case electric colors will be seen in skies over Canada and Alaska. However, it is the weakest of five classified by NOAA.

The geomagnetic storm is due to a coronal hole in the southwestern region of the sun’s face ejecting “gaseous material.”

Mike Cook, who works in space weather, told DailyMail.com the hole has increased solar wind speeds by shooting solar winds into a stream. He also notes that it’s forecast to cause G-1 conditions, but we’ll have to “see if that becomes true in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

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NOAA’s Space Weather Forecast Center classifies geometric storms into five levels – one being the weakest and five being the strongest.

And the one set for this week will have very little impact on satellites and technologies on Earth. However, it can confuse migratory animals that use the Earth’s magnetic field as a navigation tool.

This is because geomagnetic storms trigger electrical currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere as the area shaped by the Earth’s magnetic field is compressed and disrupted.

There was also a C9.3 flare shooting out of the sun on Sunday. C-class flares are small and have few noticeable effects on Earth, but they are exciting to watch.

There was also a C9.3 flare shooting out of the sun on Sunday. C-class flares are small and have few noticeable effects on Earth, but they are exciting to watch. The flare appears as a broken circle exploding out of the sun

This didn’t erupt on the Earth-facing side of the Sun, however, but it did explode enough to be captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory — a spacecraft that has been studying our massive star since its launch in 2010.

The eruption was captured late on July 31st. This graphic shows that the eruption was recorded by satellites

It takes 169,090 hours to reach the sun when traveling about 550 miles per hour.

“Yesterday’s C9.3 flare came from a region that technically isn’t even on the Earth-facing disk, just near the northeast [north eastern] limb,” Cook told Dailymail.com.

“And solar flares themselves do not cause geomagnetic storms, only when a CME (coronal mass ejection) is associated with an eruption AND an earth-directed eruption.

The snake-like filaments are CMEs, which are large ejections of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona — the outermost layer of a star’s atmosphere.

Earth experienced a solar storm on July 19 that brought stunning auroras to the northern United States and Canada. Pictured is an image of the Northern Lights over Seattle, Washington

Earth experienced a solar storm on July 19 that brought stunning auroras to the northern United States and Canada.

The storm made headlines over the weekend when Dr. Tamitha Skov announced on Friday that she had spotted a “snake-like filament” on the Sun’s surface — and it was moving toward Earth’s impact zone.

Auroras were seen earlier Friday morning as the storm hit, filling the northern sky with stunning electric shades of purple and green.

Cook DailyMail.com on July 19: “There were multiple CME [coronal mass ejections] Eruptions of the last few days (solar storms), but there is also a coronal hole (the black hole-like structures) which is the middle disk.’

“We should see the effects of that in the next 2-3 days.”

And it’s true, the cosmic show isn’t over — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) shows that a G1 class is expected to impact our planet as early as Thursday and late Friday.