 Following this, detection of the solar wind shock that precedes the CME in the solar wind, by spacecraft at the Lagrangian point, gives a definite 20 to 60 minutes warning of a geomagnetic storm (again depending on local solar wind speed).It takes approximately two to three days after a CME launches from the Sun for a geomagnetic storm to reach Earth and to affect the Earth's geomagnetic field.Major pipeline networks exist at all latitudes and many systems are on a continental scale.