A solar outburst over the weekend could lead to some stellar skywatching in the coming days.
On Sunday (May 7) at 6:54 pm EDT (2254 GMT), the day issued a long-term M1.5-class solar flares — a medium-intensity event — directly to land. The high levels of radiation associated with this event have already caused minor shortwave radio blackouts on Earth, according to Spaceweather.com (opens in new tab).
Solar flares are also associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME), an explosion of solar plasma that is now spreading toward our planet. The CME is expected to hit Earth early Wednesday morning (May 10), possibly sparking moderate to strong geomagnetic activity when it does, writes Spaceweather.com.
Related: Wild solar weather causes satellites to fall from orbit. It will only get worse.
That activity may include supercharged aurora displays. For example, moderate geomagnetic storms can make auroras visible as far south as New York or Idaho, and strong ones can make them visible to people as far away as Illinois or Oregon.
Note, however, that space weatherlike Earth weather, is a fickle thing, and predictions can change at any moment.
Solar flares are bright bursts of electromagnetic radiation emitted from sunspots, while CMEs are expulsions of plasma and magnetized particles from the sun that travel more slowly through space. Solar flares that hit Earth can cause communication outages, whereas CMEs are associated with auroras. Although they do not necessarily occur simultaneously, the brightest solar flares often coincide with CMEs.
As we go solar maximum, or the period of greatest solar activity, in the next year or two, we can expect more frequent and larger solar storms. As a result, we should also see some spectacular auroral displays.
In fact, the upcoming solar storm is the latest in a series of space weather events to buffet Earth. On Sunday, for example, a similar solar weather event boosted the auroral display for skywatchers across the planet.
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