No need to shorten sail but putting down the GPS and dusting off the sextant might be a good idea as the largest solar storm in five years strikes the earth today. A massive cloud of charged particles moving at 4 million mph could disrupt satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas.  Power grids are also at risk. A strong solar storm in 1989 knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.  The upside to the storm is that it may result in even more colorful auroras than usual.

NASA | Massive Solar Flare gets HD Close Up
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/4xKRBkBBEP0?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]

Solar storm set to strike earth — disrupting power grids, GPS

The storm is part of the sun’s normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach peak storminess next year. Solar storms don’t harm people, but they do disrupt technology. And during the last peak around 2002, experts learned that GPS was vulnerable to solar outbursts.

Because new technology has flourished since then, scientists could discover that some new systems are also at risk, said Jeffrey Hughes, director of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling at Boston University.