Tonight (May 12, 2024): A succession of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) commencing on May 8 are projected to induce northern auroras and potentially disrupt satellite communications, the electric power grid, and even prompt GPS disturbances.
The flares originated from a grouping of sunspots spanning nearly 200,000 kilometers in width, large enough to be visible to the naked eye from Earth. The magnitude of these sunspots is being likened to the Carrington event of 1859, which triggered the most intense geomagnetic storm ever documented on Earth.
This livestream of the sky will take place on the west coast of North America in British Columbia, Canada.
Only three severe (G4) geomagnetic storms have occurred so far this solar cycle (since 2019). The last Extreme (G5) event occurred with the Halloween Storms in October 2003, which resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.
Source: NOAA Space Weather
Thumbnail by: Brocken Inaglory CC