Sun Wakes Up: Aurora Alert After Biggest Solar Flare Of 2025
After a period of quiet on the surface of the sun, everything changed this week with the strongest solar flare of 2025 and coronal mass ejections that could spark Northern Lights in the coming nights.
On May 13 and May 14, NASA spotted X1.2 and X2.7 solar flares, the strongest since March 28 and 2025 so far. Solar flares are unpredictable and intense bursts of energy and electromagnetic radiation from the sun's surface. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength, according to NASA. There were also two slightly weaker M-class solar flares, rated M5.3 and M4.7, on May 14.
Most of the activity is coming from a new sunspot called 4087, which has appeared on the left-hand side of the sun as we see it, according to Spaceweather.com.
Solar flares don't cause auroras but shortwave radio blackouts. Traveling at light speed, radiation from a solar flare takes minutes to reach Earth. In the wake of the X-class solar flares, brief blackouts were reported across the world.
It's what can follow in the wake of a solar flare that aurora-hunters are interested in. Solar flares often spark what solar physicists call a coronal mass ejection, during which a cloud of super-charged particles leaves the solar surface and travels across the solar system, though at a much slower speed than the radiation from a solar flare. In the wake of May 14's solar flare, a CME was spotted, but it's traveling towards Mars, not Earth.
The aurora borealis is notoriously difficult to predict. That's because it's very difficult to know whether a CME is Earth-bound and, if it is, exactly when it will arrive. After all, there are no satellites close to the sun to detect the speed of a CME. That data can only be collected when the CME's effect on the solar wind — the stream of charged particles released from the sun that travels in all directions in the solar system — is measured by NOAA's DSCOVR satellite, which orbits Earth. DSCOVR measures the solar wind's speed and magnetic intensity, which is critical in calculating how it is about to change. Only then can an aurora display be accurately forecast by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, but there's not much warning — just 30 minutes. The Northern Lights are a result of the solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field.
The sun has a roughly 11-year cycle during which its magnetic activity crests and subsides. How active it is is measured by counting sunspots on its surface, dark patches that indicate complexity — and often produce solar flares and CMEs. NASA and NOAA's Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel announced the arrival of solar maximum in October 2024, though the exact date won't be obvious for a few years. Some solar maximum periods have a double peak, which we could now be approaching.
Even when the number of sunspots begins to decrease, big displays of aurora are possible. 'This period of solar decline is marked by a decreasing number of sunspots, but not necessarily by fewer impacts, even after the solar maximum,' said Lisa Upton, co-chair of NASA and NOAA's Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel. In fact, the declining phase of solar maximum can see extreme solar events.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
With 'Atmosphere,' Taylor Jenkins Reid leaves the Evelyn Hugo-verse behind and travels to space
Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, 'Atmosphere: A Love Story,' set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through. 'I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.''
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Bright green meteor zooms past Sydney as auroras dazzle across Australia
A bright green meteor was seen zooming past Sydney on Sunday as spectacular southern lights lit up the skies across most of Australia and New Zealand. A Sydney resident named Tom McCallister posted a video of the meteor, about the size of a basketball, traversing the city's skies. 'Absolutely magnificent meteor seen travelling east to west over Sydney this evening,' Mr McCallister captioned the video posted on Facebook. 'This was looking north at 17:57 local time.' Astrophysicist Brad Tucker, from the Australian National University, agreed that the object was indeed a meteor due to its unique blue-green colour, indicative of iron and nickel content. Anyone else just see a green, long meteor over Canberra? Tried to get a photo but I've only got slow shutter speeds on - out waiting for Aurora Australis instead - but that's a good start to the night! — Nat (@raurkyn) June 1, 2025 People across New Zealand and on Australia's east coast were also treated to a dazzling display of southern lights on Sunday. Many skygazers later shared photos of aurora australis on social media. The space weather phenomenon is caused when bursts of charged particles released from the Sun – known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs – interact with the Earth's magnetic field, creating what's called a geomagnetic storm. The lights are called aurora australis in the southern hemisphere and aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere. Pictures posted on social media showed the sky glowing in hues of pink, red and green, with slight traces of yellow. The colours come from different molecules in the atmosphere getting charged by the Earth's magnetic field. Oxygen gives off a fluorescent green hue while nitrogen molecules interacting with the magnetic field generate a blue, red or pink shade. Auroras are seen when a strong solar storm from the Sun hits the Earth. They are more clearly visible around polar regions since the magnetic field is the strongest there. Aurora Australis dancing over Merimbula Lake in NSW, Australia this evening. — Fiona Brook (@The_Feefenator) June 1, 2025 Astronomers have predicted a strong geomagnetic storm on Sunday and Monday after a powerful CME was seen erupting from the Sun on Friday. The latest CME also caused aurora borealis across most of the continental US as far down south as Alabama. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the possibility of a severe geomagnetic storm remained 'in effect'. 'There are indications that the coronal mass ejection passage is weakening, but the solar wind conditions remain elevated, therefore additional periods of G3-G4 levels remain possible,' the NOAA said, using the designations for strong and severe category storms. 'However, we now anticipate that conditions should weaken enough by tomorrow evening, 2 June, that G1 storm levels are the most likely peak response.' The Sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year activity cycle.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
A chance to spot rare and mysterious noctilucent clouds
It's time to watch for the beautiful cloud formations known as noctilucent clouds. Latin for 'night shining', noctilucent clouds are seasonal and become visible in the northern hemisphere from late spring/early summer. Although unpredictable, when they do appear they will be seen in the western sky about half an hour after the sun sets. As the sky darkens into night, they will shine with an extraordinary electric blue colour. Part of the appeal of these rare clouds is that their origins are still mysterious. They are the highest known clouds in Earth's atmosphere, condensing at an altitude of about 80km (50 miles). This is virtually the edge of space. Their extreme altitude is what allows them to catch the last rays of the setting sun, even when Earth's surface beneath them is already in darkness. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the clouds is that there are no recorded sightings of them before 1885. Some suggest the clouds are therefore caused by industrial pollutants to which water vapour freezes, or by the rise of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere, which promotes water vapour production in the upper atmosphere. In the southern hemisphere, the noctilucent cloud season begins around October.
