The event has just been upgraded from a G1 to a G2 class geomagnetic storm and could mess with spacecraft navigation, damage transformers, and wreak havoc with migrating birds sense of direction.

Solar wind escaping from a hole in the suns atmosphere will travel through space to reach Earth tomorrow and build in intensity on October 8.

A NASA observatory captured an image of the large canyon-shaped hole yesterday – and it is directly facing Earth.

This gap is known as a cornoral hole and this one is massive, stretching more than 500,000 miles from the suns north pole to its southern hemisphere.

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DIRECT HIT: Solar wind is heading towards Earth (pic not to scale) (Pic: GETTY)

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SPECTACULAR: Northern Lights at Blackness Castle, just outside Linlithgow in Central Scotland (Pic: GETTY STOCK)

Scotland aurora GETTY STOCK

AURORA: Woman watching the Northern lights on Seacliff Beach in East Lothian, Scotland (Pic: GETTY STOCK)

“The solar wind stream is likely to arrive this Sunday, 7 October”

Space Weather Live

The activity could also cause a spectacular display of auroras (the Northern Lights) in Scotland and parts of northern England.

Expedia says the best places to glimpse this dazzling phenomenon in the UK are:

  • Shetland
  • Orkney and Caithness
  • Aberdeenshire and the Moray Coast
  • Lewis, Harris and the the most northerly tip of Skye
  • The far Northwest (Applecross, Lochinver, just north of Ullapool)
  • The Cairngorms
  • Angus and the Fife coast
  • Derwentater, Cumbria
  • Hardians Wall, Northumberland
  • Carneddau, Snowdonia

Space Weather Live said: ”This solar wind stream will likely take about two and a half to three days to travel the Sun-Earth distance which means the solar wind stream is likely to arrive this Sunday, 7 October.

"Moderate G2 geomagnetic storm conditions will be possible on this date and perhaps early on Monday, 8th October."

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