The Earth is currently being battered by a storm of charged particles from the Sun, which could disrupt power grids, satellite navigation and plane routes.The storm - the largest in five years - will bombard the Earth’s magnetic field throughout Thursday.It was triggered by a pair of solar flares - the largest of their kind - earlier this week. As a result, the Northern Lights may be visible at lower latitudes.The effects will be most intense in polar regions, and aircraft may be advised to change their routings to avoid these areas.In the UK, the best chance to see them will be on Thursday night, the British Geological Survey says.The Sun’s activity rises and falls through an 11-year cycle, and has in recent months been seen to launch more of the solar flares that are causing the current storm. The cycle is due to peak in 2013.The flares have resulted in what is known as a coronal mass ejection, “the technical term for what is really just a big ball of gas travelling at 2,000 kilometres per second”, according to Doug Biesiecker from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
