Aurora

September 20, 2022

Aurora Season: Why More Auroras at Equinoxes?

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] This week started with the return of region AR3088, now labeled AR3102. Activity increased by the weekend with several M flares and the return of region AR3089. (Image: David Mark)
September 2, 2022

September Equinox 2022 – Time for a change

The Equinox occurs on September 23, 2022 at 01:03 UTC (Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 9:03 p.m. EDT • 6:03 p.m. PDT).
March 24, 2022

Aurora Season: Why More Auroras at Equinoxes?

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] This pattern in nature – auroras increasing twice a year – is one of the earliest patterns ever to be observed and recorded by scientists.
March 14, 2022

Sunspot Region AR2965, M2 Solar Flare & Glorious Auroras

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] Lots of fun with the Sun lately. A coronal mass ejection slammed into Earth and gave weekend aurora. Then the Sun fired off a moderate solar flare.
December 21, 2021

Aurora Alert for December 23, After M-class Flares

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] There’s been a small uptick in solar activity over the past two days (December 20 and 21, 2021). The increase comes from the fact that nine sunspot groups (active regions or AR) now pepper the visible face of the sun.
November 4, 2021

Aurora Alert! CME Impacting Earth Arriving November 4, 2021

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] Aurora alert in effect for the next few days: the sun sent out a halo coronal mass ejection on November 2, 2021, due to arrive at Earth on November 4.
October 30, 2021

Solar Storm and Aurora Starting Tonight 10.30.2021

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] A solar storm after an eruption on the sun is carrying plasma toward Earth, which should produce northern and southern lights this weekend.
September 1, 2021

Aurora Alert! Pair of CMEs to Jolt Earth’s Magnetic Field

[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] Aurora alert! A pair of coronal mass ejections will reach Earth September 1-2, 2021. Though not dangerous to satellites or the grid, they might cause auroras.
July 14, 2018

Bastille Day Blast! A Celebratory Solar Flare

On July 14 2000, the sun produced a spectacular show! Sunspot region NOAA AR9077 when it was close to sun center let of a BANG!!! It was what one might call a text book space weather event. First came the […]
December 9, 2014

Be an Aurora Hunter!

Do you want to be an Aurora Hunter but have no idea how to get started? (LINKS UPDATED BELOW) Now you can be one through Aurorasaurus – be part of a grand experiment “Reporting Auroras from the Ground Up.” Join […]
November 9, 2014

Northern Lights Bucket List

NOTE: The page load time might be slow due to the HD size of the photos & videos. This post is dedicated to Alex Maltosz-Cox, a 17-year old with terminal bone cancer, and his mom Bobbie. We saw your story […]
September 12, 2014

The Small Storm Before the Big Storm?

UPDATE #4 (13:30 UT 9/13)) – The storm is subsiding but beautiful aurora were had by many. Even down to the northern US like Maine. “I took the picture from Casco, Maine, facing north towards the Presidential Range in New Hampshire,” […]
June 9, 2014

Geomagnetic Storm and Aurora from Brush with CME

High latitude observers treated with spectacular aurora June 8 and June 9th. The CME that glanced Earth’s magnetosphere on June 7 started a minor geomagnetic disturbance just after the impact that grew into a G1 then G2 level geomagnetic storm […]
February 19, 2014

Geomagnetic Storm and Aurora from Valentine’s Weekend CME

A CME from February 16, 2014 has impacted Earth. The CME’s magnetic structure was such that it stirred things up in the magnetosphere.   A significant interplanetary shock detected by ACE at L1 at 3:10 UT, February 19, 2014.   The […]
February 14, 2014

Waiting for an Aurora Valentine

3 CMEs are headed for Earth with the first impact expected late on Feb. 14, 2014 for some Valentine’s day and weekend aurora! Space weather forecasters are waiting to see what is in store for this weekend. Three separate CMEs […]
February 12, 2014

Current Solar Rumblings and Valentine’s Day Aurora

A whole lot of spots going on! We no longer have the rumbling region AR11967 but the solar disk is covered with smaller regions and AR11974 is sitting at disk center popping of lots of small and medium-sized flares. It […]
August 20, 2013

Aurora Ahead? – Filament Eruption with an Earth-directed CME

There may be a geomagnetic storm in store for Earth. Lookout aurora watchers! A filament ~50 Earths in length (~400,000 miles) erupted from the Sun’s southern hemisphere in the southwest direction around 7:24 UT (4:24 am EDT). The eruption produced […]
March 16, 2013

Waiting for a St. Patrick’s Day Aurora

Look at for Aurora tonight and tomorrow at high latitudes! Yesterday’s coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to sweep past Earth in the last half of today (March 16, 2013) sometime around 18UT (+- 7-8 hours). Forecasts are from minor […]
July 12, 2012

Earth Bound CME Predicted with X1 Flare Event

Possible Moderate to Severe Geomagnetic Storm Sunspot group, AR11520, produced an X1.4 solar flare, peaking in the NOAA GOES X-ray monitor at 16:52 UT (12:52 EDT). This flash of electromagnetic radiation temporarily altered the upper atmosphere changing its ability to […]
April 24, 2012

Aurora over Giant’s Causeway and Ballintoy Harbour, Co. Antrim

Gorgeous aurora captured by Martin McKenna! Last night’s geomagnetic storm (April 24, 2012) put on quite a show and this was not even a large event. This is near the childhood homes of some of our esteemed Irish solar physics colleagues!
October 26, 2011

Anatomy of a Geomagnetic Storm – What made that great Aurora?

  Saturday, October 22, 2011, started like most any other day, lots of activity of varying size and shape was occurring on the Sun. Most people looking at the Sun that day remember the spectacular lightbulb shaped CME that occurred […]
January 16, 2011

When the Sun has Holes We Often Get Aurora

Two coronal holes that develop over several days stand out in this image and video clip of the Sun from SDO’s AIA instrument (Jan. 9-12, 2010). In the extreme UV wavelength of 193 Angstroms, one dark coronal hole intensifies just […]
October 11, 2010

Increased Auroral Activity Oct. 11-12 from a Halo CME Oct. 6, 2010

Around 3:30 UT on October 6, 2010 a filament erupted in the northeast part of the solar disk (upper left area). Moving at around 375 km/s (850,000 miles per hour) the CME combined with the ambient solar wind then over […]
August 8, 2010

The Sun 2 Weeks With SDO/AIA (July 25 – August 7, 2010)

Here is a 2-week view of the sun as observed by the AIA (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly) instrument aboard the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) spacecraft. This video contains 4 wavelength channels 304, 171, 193 & 211. First, all four wavelengths are […]
August 4, 2010

THEMIS All-Sky White-light Auroral Camera from August 4, 2010

On Feb. 16, 2006 the NASA-led THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms) mission was launched. This fleet of 5 spacecraft was tasked with understanding substorms in the magnetosphere, the power source of the aurora and consequence […]
August 3, 2010

Complex Solar Flare and Filament Eruption Event

On August 1, 2010, the sun produced a complex event, or really a set of events. At approximately 8:55 UT a large filament on the northwest of the sun erupted and at nearly the same time in sunspot active region 11902, […]