Powerful Solar Storm Lights Up Skies for 2 Nights in a Row Over the Weekend Without Major Power Disruptions

The Sun released powerful solar storms last week, resulting in multiple sightings of the northern lights over the weekend. For two consecutive nights, auroras lit up the skies in some parts of the United Kingdom and the United States.

Auroras Lit Up The Sky For 2 Nights Over the Weekend

After stunning people in the United States, Tasmania, and the Bahamas the day before, auroras lit up the skies over large portions of the world on Saturday for the second night.

Magnificent celestial displays often limited to the planet's far north have been set off by a strong solar storm, which may last until Sunday. This is why they are known as the "northern lights."

"I have the sensation of living through a historic night in France... It was really charged, with solar particles and emotions," Eric Lagadec, an astrophysicist at the Observatoire de Cote d'Azur, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, per Phys.org.

"Find good spots, away from the lights, with a clear view to the north!"

The storm on Friday was predicted to reach the highest level: level five geomagnetic conditions. G3 to G5 conditions were observed on Saturday; G4 or better conditions were expected on Sunday, and G3 conditions may persist into Monday.

However, despite initial concerns from authorities, no significant outages to electricity or communications networks seem to have been reported. Preliminary reports of power grid abnormalities, degradation to high-frequency communications, GPS, and perhaps satellite navigation have been the only information provided, according to the SWPC.

People in the United States claimed sightings late on Saturday night, albeit they weren't as intense as those reported Friday night. Pictures began to appear on social media once more.

The US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) reports that the first of many coronal mass ejections (CMEs)-expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the occurred shortly after 1600 GMT on Friday.

The geomagnetic storm eventually rose to "extreme" status, marking the first one since the October 2003 "Halloween Storms" that devastated South Africa's power system and caused blackouts in Sweden.

Sunspot Region AR3664 Has Grown 15 Times the Earth's Diameter

The massive sunspot named AR3664 has grown in size to approximately 124,300 miles (200,000 kilometers) in width, or more than 15 times the diameter of the Earth. This amazing evolution is seen in a recent time-lapse video with imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft.

Moreover, large and active AR3664 is still spiking powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), some of which could hit Earth this weekend and amplify aurora activity. Aurora Borealis sightings have been reported from all over the world. More south than usual, the United States, New Zealand, and Europe all had stunning, colorful lights filling the skies.

AR3664 is nearly the same size as the sunspot linked to the Carrington event in 1859-the biggest geomagnetic storm ever recorded on Earth. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center monitors the growing area to stay abreast of new developments.

Check out more news and information on Solar Flares in Science Times.