Skies across the U.S. were lit in a spectacular, colorful glow at levels not seen in years or decades as massive solar flares slammed into Earth on Friday.
Northern Light displays, typically relegated to states along the Canadian border during a typical geomagnetic storm, reached as far as the Gulf Coast, with pink, green, and purple skies reported in Florida, Texas, and Alabama.
The SWPC says satellites observed conditions that reached level 5 on their 5-point scale of geomagnetic activity on Friday evening, noted as an “extreme” event and the first such storm to reach that level since October 2003.
While conditions have since drifted back to a level 4 storm Saturday morning, more geomagnetic activity is heading Earth’s way over the weekend from additional solar flares, possibly lasting into early next week.
NOAA observed yet another massive X-class solar flare released from the Sun on Friday evening, rating it as X5.4 on their scale, among the strongest flares of recent activity.
Aside from brilliant and widespread displays of the aurora, geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations, the SWPC says. The last time Earth experienced a Level 5 geomagnetic event, there were power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.
“We have notified all of our infrastructure operators that we coordinate with, such as satellite operators, communication folks, and of course, the power grid here in North America,” SWPC coordinator Shawn Dahl said Friday.
“So they are able and prepared to take mitigation efforts as much as possible throughout this event if it should unfold to the levels that we currently are anticipating.”
SpaceX’s Starlink service warned on its website Saturday morning that it was experiencing “degraded service,” though it didn’t give further details. Yet SpaceX head Elon Musk had earlier posted on X that the Starlink satellites were under a lot of pressure due to the geomagnetic storm and were still holding up.
Two massive sunspots have recently merged and spit out at least three X-class (largest) and several M-class (second-largest) solar flares. According to NOAA, the explosive acceleration of charged and superheated plasma, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, speeds through space and expands.
The new sunspot is 17 times the diameter of the Earth. “These two sunspot clusters are magnetically complex and much larger than Earth. Together they have been the source of frequent M-class flares (minor to moderate),” stated the Space Weather Prediction Center. “RGN 3664 (the combined sunspot region) continues to grow and increase in magnetic complexity and has evolved into a higher threat of increased solar flare risk.”
