Solar Storm

Auroras could be visible as far south as places like New York City this weekend, experts say. (Image credit: Brandon Rosenblum via Getty Images) Skywatchers in up to 18 U.S. states could witness auroras in the coming days as a "moderate" geomagnetic storm rocks Earth's magnetic field, starting on Friday…

Local weather alerts are familiar warnings for potentially dangerous conditions, but an alert that puts all of Earth on warning is rare. On May 31, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) space-based instrumentation captured real-time observations of a powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that erupted from the Sun initiating a "severe…

Please complete security verification This request seems a bit unusual, so we need to confirm that you're human. Please press and hold the button until it turns completely green. Thank you for your cooperation! Press and hold the button If you believe this is an error, please contact our support…

Northern lights above Alaska, U.S. (Image credit: Noppawat Tom Charoensinphon via Getty Images) Editor's note: We could be in for even more aurora shows tonight as the northern lights may be visible from 15 U.S. States on June 2. Northern lights could put on an impressive show tonight (June 1)…

Auroras above Kaikoura, New Zealand, during the severe geomagnetic storm. (Image credit: Sai Shankar) Wow, what a show! Our planet is currently reverberating from the impact of a powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) that struck Earth head-on in the early hours of June 1 — and the resulting auroras were…

The view of the northern lights during the "Mother's Day" geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024 from Cleveland, Ohio. (Image credit: Meredith Garofalo) Researchers from Kyushu University in Japan have provided some new insights about the powerful geomagnetic storm that flared up last Mother's Day, after a big solar storm…

During a powerful solar storm on Mother’s Day, scientists discovered that a mysterious ionospheric phenomenon, sporadic E layers, became unusually active, especially during the storm’s recovery. These thin, metal-rich patches appeared to ripple from the poles toward the equator, shedding new light on a region of Earth’s atmosphere that has…

A surprise solar storm turned a NASA simulation into a real-world space weather crisis. As the Gannon geomagnetic storm struck Earth, it disrupted satellites, grounded flights, heated the atmosphere to extreme temperatures, and even shook up Mars. Auroras danced in skies far from the poles, satellites scrambled to stay in…

Solar storms batter Earth every year, creating the occasional aurora and sometimes even paralyzing power grids. But these common phenomena pale in comparison to a monstrous event that inundated the planet with particles from the Sun around 14,300 years ago, identified as the strongest solar storm ever recorded in a…

The Sun rarely produced extreme solar particle events, orders of magnitude stronger than everything directly observed. Their enormous power can greatly distort the production of cosmogenic isotopes, e.g., radiocarbon (14C), in the terrestrial system, leaving clear signatures in natural terrestrial archives including dateable tree rings. Eight such events were known…