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OVIEDO, Spain

Spain’s Space Agency (AEE) late Sunday urged infrastructure operators to remain vigilant amid an intense wave of solar activity, warning that such events can disrupt power grids, radio communications and satellite navigation systems.

A high-speed coronal mass ejection (CME) – a huge burst of charged particles from the sun – struck Earth’s magnetic field early Sunday, triggering a “severe” geomagnetic storm, the AEE said.

Although activity moderated on Sunday, the AEE said activity is expected to intensify again throughout Monday.

“Such storms can affect high-latitude power grids, disrupt high-frequency radio communications, cause temporary errors in satellite navigation systems, and create transient effects on low-Earth orbit satellites due to increased thermospheric density,” the space agency said.

“The AEE recommends that operators of space and ground infrastructure remain vigilant and update forecasts with the latest international data,” it added.

So far, satellite operators have reported no major anomalies.

The AEE said the activity reached a Kp index of eight – on a scale of one to nine – on Sunday. For now, no dangerous situation is expected, which would only arise if the Kp index reaches the extreme level of nine, it added.

According to NASA, disturbances reaching a Kp index of seven or eight can trigger auroras and disrupt electrical power systems.

In 1989, a Kp 9 storm caused a nine-hour blackout in Quebec, Canada, collapsing the local power grid. Other similarly strong storms struck in October 2003 and May 2024, producing widespread auroras and satellite anomalies.

Spain also recently dealt with a massive blackout, though the government has ruled out any atmospheric event as the cause.

Spanish authorities are still investigating what triggered the half-day blackout across most of Spain and Portugal in April, with the government saying it will likely take several months to determine the reason for the power outage.