Last week, three coronal holes opened up on the sun's surface, releasing high-speed solar winds towards Earth.

(NASA)

At a Glance

Residents in the far northern tier of the United States, including Michigan and Maine, may be able to see auroras Wednesday night. The storm may trigger weak power grid fluctuations and can affect marine mammals' internal compasses.

You may not realize it, but Earthis being hit by a solar storm today.

The Space Weather Prediction Center issuedfor Tuesday and Wednesday "due to the arrival of a negative polarity coronal hole high-speed stream." This comes on the heels of.

When , high-speed solar wind rushes into space, according to NASA.When wind hits theEarth's atmosphere, it interacts with the planet's magnetosphere, creating geomagnetic storms and enhanced auroras at the poles.

may appear in northern Michigan and Maine, NASA says.

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The storm may also trigger weak power grid fluctuations and degraded high-frequency radio waves.They can also cause minor damage to Earth-orbiting satellites.

Geomagnetic storms can also affect marine mammals' internal compasses, disorienting them enoughto increase the likelihood ofbeach strandings.