The latest on the massive solar storm

A long-exposure photo shows the aurora borealis over Portland, Maine, on May 10.

Among a flurry of surreal images capturing the dazzling auroras is one taken by Benjamin Williamson of a lighthouse in Portland, Maine.

“It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen, the awe and wonder,” Williamson told CNN.

He said he used a long-exposure technique to snap the shot, but did not edit it.

Watch the full interview with Williamson here.

If you still haven’t seen the aurora, hold on for another 30 minutes to an hour, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

The next wave of coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which cause the aurora, is about to arrive, he said.

“Just wait a minute because things are going to start to ramp up here,” he said, adding that the increase could arrive “anytime now.”
“When it comes, get outside, get ready, put your coat on.”

For those who are too busy to witness the phenomenon tonight, Myers said the aurora is expected to last three nights.

The northern lights can be seen from Eaton Rapids, Michigan, on May 10.

Generally, it takes just eight minutes for light to travel 93 million miles to the Earth from the sun, but astrophysicist Janna Levin said the energized particles causing the current wave of aurora travel a lot slower, causing the phenomenon to last for the weekend.

“Some of these mass ejections are trillions of kilograms,” she said. “They’re slower. So they’re taking longer, but still hours, maybe tens of hours.”

The aurora was visible across the East Coast and in the South Friday.

Here’s how it looked in Chester, South Carolina.

Down in Florida, waves of color swam through the sky.

Up north in New Jersey, a purple-ish haze could be seen in the sky.

The answer is probably not in the short term, according to astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi.

He said scientists study what is constantly happening on the surface of the sun and have found a pattern.

“Geological data shows us that in the past the sun was way more active than it is today. It has cycles where it goes very quiet … and you have events that show that the solar activity was much, much greater,” he told CNN. “So there’s no evidence that we’re going to see those big maxima this cycle.” 

But the astrophysicist also spoke of a caveat - the limitations of modern science.

“Even though it’s predictable in the short term, we still don’t quite understand what creates the magnetic fields in the sun,” he said, adding: “That’s why NASA has so many satellites looking at the sun.”

The northern lights glow in the night sky in Brandenburg, Germany, on May 10.

A series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun are creating dazzling auroras across the globe.

The rare solar storm may also disrupt communications. The last time a solar storm of this magnitude reached Earth was in October 2003, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

See more photos of the aurora from tonight.

Bill Nye the Science Guy speaks to CNN on Friday, May 10.

The massive solar storm could present “a real danger,” especially with the modern world relying so much on electricity, according to Bill Nye the Science Guy, a science educator and engineer.

Scientists are warning an increase in solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun have the potential to disrupt communication on Earth into the weekend. Solar flares can affect communications and GPS almost immediately because they disrupt Earth’s ionosphere, or part of the upper atmosphere. Energetic particles released by the sun can also disrupt electronics on spacecraft and affect astronauts without proper protection within 20 minutes to several hours.

In comparison to tonight’s event, Nye drew comparisons with another incident in 1859, known as the Carrington Event, when telegraph communications were severely affected.

“The other thing, everybody, that is a real danger to our technological society, different from 1859, is how much we depend on electricity and our electronics and so on,” Nye said. “None of us really in the developed world could go very long without electricity.”

He noted that there are systems in place to minimize the impact, but “stuff might go wrong,” stressing that not all transformers are equipped to withstand such a solar event.

“It depends on the strength of the event and it depends on how much of our infrastructures are prepared for this the sort of thing,” he said.

This post has been updated with more details on solar flares’ impact on electronics.

An infrared satellite image taken around 10:30 p.m. ET.

After an incredibly stormy week, most of the Lower 48 has clear skies to see the northern lights. But there are some areas where clouds and rainy weather are spoiling the view.

A deck of clouds is blocking the sky in the Northeast, from parts of Virginia into Maine, as an area of low pressure spins off the East Coast.

In the Midwest, the aurora will be hard to see through thick clouds in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan — including the Upper Peninsula — and Illinois.

A stripe of clouds is tracking across Texas, including Dallas-Forth Worth, and into Louisiana.

And in the Southwest, patchy clouds across the the Four Corners region could make the northern lights difficult to spot.

Barely visible to the naked eye, the aurora can be seen in Atlanta in the 10 p.m. ET hour. 

It is easier to see through photographs using a long exposure. The photos below, taken by CNN’s Eric Zerkel and Emily Smith, used 3- and 10-second exposures.

Aurora seen in Atlanta around 10:15 p.m. ET.

Aurora seen in Atlanta area around 10:30 p.m. ET.

Aurora seen in Atlanta area around 10:30 p.m. ET.

Some of the first aurora photos from the US come from Nate deLabry in Sebago Lake, Maine:

Teams at the Space Weather Prediction Center use a wide range of data to predict when geomagnetic storms will impact Earth — like the one that’s happening right now and expected to continue into the weekend.

These teams collect data from ground and space-based observatories, magnetic maps of the solar surface, and ultraviolet observations of the sun’s outer atmosphere to determine when the sun is most likely to send out solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other space weather that could affect Earth.

“We look at the sun for signs of increased activity,” Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist and NASA adviser said. “When we see a lot of sunspots we know that there’s the potential for these big storms.”

Scientists then watch those areas for any solar flares or flashes coming off the sun.

“That’s when we know a solar storm might have been launched,” Sutter said.

The material sent speeding away from the sun during coronal mass ejections can arrive at Earth between 30 and 72 hours afterward, causing geomagnetic storms that affect satellites and create electrical currents in the upper atmosphere that travel through the ground and can have an impact on electric power grids.

The Space Weather Prediction Center runs a model every few minutes that predicts where the aurora will be easiest to spot.

Its forecast for 10:04 p.m. ET showed nearly all of Canada will have a high chance of seeing the aurora if the skies are dark and clear. The high chance extends into the Lower 48, including parts of the Midwest, including Wisconsin and Michigan.

But areas as far south as the Ohio River Valley, West Virginia and Maryland will also have a chance to see the northern lights.

It needs to be dark to see the aurora, so areas where it’s still light out won’t yet be able to see it, even if they have a high chance in this forecast.

There continues to be a high likelihood of aurora over the far northern latitudes of Asia and Europe, including Finland, Sweden and Norway. Iceland will continue to have prime aurora viewing.

There is also still a chance to see aurora in parts of the UK.

Here are some tips to capture images of the northern lights with your smartphone, courtesy of the Iceland tourism board (It knows a thing or two about the aurora):

According to NOAA, you might be able to capture the aurora with your phone even if you can’t see them with your naked eye.

CNN’s Ross Levitt contributed to this report.

US telecommunications company AT&T said it is monitoring and ready to respond to potential impacts from the massive solar storm.

“Based on what we currently know, we do not expect significant disruption in our networks as a result of the anticipated solar storm. We will continue to monitor closely and take appropriate action as we learn more,” AT&T said.

Another telecommunications company, TMobile, said it doesn’t anticipate any impact but is monitoring for disruptions.

Remember: When radiation from the sun hits the magnetic sphere surrounding the planet, it causes fluctuations in the ionosphere, a layer of the upper atmosphere. Those changes can directly affect satellites and other spacecraft in orbit, altering their orientation or potentially knocking out their electronics.

Consumer wireless networks rely on different radio frequencies than the high-frequency band, so it appears unlikely that the storm will directly affect cellular service. So long as the underlying electrical infrastructure that supports wireless networks remains unaffected, even an extreme space weather event should result in “minimal direct impact to public safety line-of-sight radio and commercial cellular services … and no first-order impact to consumer electronic devices,” according to researchers summarizing the findings of a 2010 study.

This post has been updated with comments from TMobile.

A filtered image of the sun that allows scientists to monitor solar flare activity.

Scientists are warning an increase in solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun have the potential to disrupt communication on Earth into the weekend.

The sun is in a solar maximum, with activity expected to peak through mid-to-late 2024.

Every 11 years or so, the sun experiences periods of low and high solar activity, which is associated with the amount of sunspots on its surface. The sun’s strong and constantly shifting magnetic fields drive these dark regions, some of which can reach the size of Earth or larger.

Over the course of a solar cycle, the sun will transition from a calm to an intense and active period. During the peak of activity, called solar maximum, the sun’s magnetic poles flip. Then, the sun will grow quiet again during a solar minimum.

The current solar cycle, known as Solar Cycle 25, has been full of activity — more so than expected. Scientists at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, have already tracked more sunspots than those counted at the peak of the previous cycle.

The increased activity has also included strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere. 

What this means for us: Solar flares can affect communications and GPS almost immediately because they disrupt Earth’s ionosphere, or part of the upper atmosphere. Energetic particles released by the sun can also disrupt electronics on spacecraft and affect astronauts without proper protection within 20 minutes to several hours.

This post has been updated with more details about Solar Cycle 25.

Utility companies in the United States and Canada are monitoring the ongoing geomagnetic storm hitting the Earth. The series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun have the potential to disrupt power grids and communications.

US:

Canada:

This post has been updated with information from additional utility companies.

Paul Hollywood, the beloved judge of the “Great British Bake Off” (also known as the “Great British Baking Show” in the United States) shared his “amazing” green, purple and pink-shaded aurora on Instagram Friday night.

The aurora australis as seen in Central Otago in New Zealand around 6:20 am NZT, on May 11.

Andrew Dickson had one of the best seats to view the southern lights Saturday morning local time – his very own front yard in Central Otago on the South Island of New Zealand.

Dickson, an early riser routinely, knew to expect an aurora but didn’t expect the view he saw, he told CNN.

His family is building a bigger home and living in two smaller ones temporarily. While walking across the deck to grab something from one of the homes he looked up and said he knew he had to get some photos.

“I live rurally so virtually no light pollution,” he said of his ability to capture stunning images of the aurora.

Reminder: Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around both of the Earth’s poles. The southern lights are called aurora australis.

NASA has been monitoring the conditions for astronauts aboard the International Space Station during the ongoing extreme geomagnetic storm.

Here’s what the space agency said:

“NASA completed a thorough analysis of recent space weather activity and determined it posed no risk to the crew aboard the International Space Station and no additional precautionary measures are needed.
“On Earth, life is protected from space radiation by Earth’s magnetic field. Although the space station orbits about 250 miles above Earth, some protection is inherited from the proximity to Earth’s magnetic field. Solar flares – which reach Earth within eight minutes, meaning the most recent flares have already passed by – are the electromagnetic brightening of solar active regions. This enhanced light does not pose a danger to the crew.
“However, rare intense high-energy solar particle events may warrant crew precautions aboard space station. In these cases, crew members could avoid areas that have lower shielding, or shelter in place where there is higher shielding due to the presence of more station mass between the crew and the space environment outside. The current solar flare activity has not warranted these precautions. NASA will keep an eye on additional solar eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, coming toward Earth in the wake of the flares, but do not anticipate concern for the astronauts.
“The agency receives regular updates about the space radiation environment in support of human spaceflight missions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center. NASA’s Space Radiation Analysis Group supports human exploration at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston by keeping crew members within acceptable levels of risk from space radiation. The amount of space radiation a crew member is exposed to is monitored continuously throughout their mission using dosimeters and other tools. The group also evaluates radiological safety with respect to exposure to isotopes and radiation-producing equipment carried on the spacecraft.
“As NASA continues to plan for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, additional radiation protection is being studied and developed to keep crew members as safe as possible.”

The skies over Surrey, England, glowed pink, purple and green during the geomagnetic storm Friday night.

The Space Weather Prediction Center uses something called the “K-index” to describe how much of an impact a solar event is having on Earth’s magnetic field.

The K-index ranges from 0 to 9, with 0 being calm, or no impact, and 9 being the most severe geomagnetic storm.

During the 3-hour period ending at 8 p.m. ET, the K-index shot up to 9. It indicates that an extreme geomagnetic storm is happening.

The aurora borealis is seen at Crosby Beach in Liverpool, England, on May 10.

The ongoing solar storm will likely continue through the weekend, the Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday.

Several coronal mass ejections — waves of solar plasma that the sun belched out earlier this week — are in transit toward Earth. Those so-called CMEs are what’s causing the aurora and disruption on Earth.

Some communications could be interrupted, as well as GPS, power grids, spacecraft and satellite navigation. The SWPC said it is in touch with infrastructure operators to help them minimize the impact of the storm. 

This geomagnetic storm is currently classified as a G5, or extreme storm. The last G5 event was the Halloween Storms in October 2003, the center said.

“That event resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa,” it said.

The sky over Edinburgh looks like a painter swiped a watercolor brush across it. The multicolor aurora is making the Scottish capital feel “like a different planet tonight,” said Jacob Anderson.

The ongoing geomagnetic storm is now “extreme,” or level 5 out of 5, the Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday evening.

G5 conditions reached Earth at 6:54 p.m. ET.  

This is the first G5-level storm since October 2003.

The Space Weather Prediction Center runs a model every few minutes that predicts where the aurora will be easiest to spot.

In its forecast for 8:11 p.m. ET, there was a high likelihood of aurora over the far northern latitudes, including Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and northern Canada.

There was a lower chance – roughly 10% to 25% – in parts of the UK.

But don’t let that deter you from going outside if the skies are clear tonight; the northern lights have already been seen in London, even in light-polluted skies.

Joe Biden delivers remarks at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on May 8.

The Biden administration is monitoring the possibility of impacts from the solar storm this weekend, according to a White House official.

The official said an interagency effort is underway with participation from the Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, among others. 

“NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has notified operators of infrastructure systems of potential risks so they can take any needed mitigation measures,” the official said, and “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as well as other sector risk management agencies are working closely with infrastructure operators to ensure necessary precautions are taken.”

The US Secret Service presidential protection division is also coordinating with the White House and local jurisdictions, US Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said.

“This ensures maximum interoperability and is important when visiting remote locations or in instances with extreme environmental events, like solar flares and major storms,” he said.

Jacob Anderson shared this image of the lights seen in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun have the potential to create dazzling auroras that may be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California as early as Friday and continuing into the weekend, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different-colored light in the sky.

Geomagnetic storms driven by the sun in recent months have caused auroras to be visible in places where they are rarely seen, including as far south as New Mexico, Missouri, North Carolina and California in the United States as well as the southeast of England and other parts of the United Kingdom.

Depending on the location, the auroras may not always be visible overhead, but keep an eye on the horizon, experts say, because they may create a colorful display there as well.

Even if auroras aren’t visible in the sky, experts at the center recommend taking images of the sky with your phone because the images may capture what you can’t see with the naked eye.

To prepare for the incoming geomagnetic storm this week, the US government is advising people to take the same steps they would take in response to an extended power outage.

For example, for a space weather event, the government recommends keeping extra batteries or a hand-powered charger available for small electronic devices.

Officials say you may want to disconnect electric appliances to protect them from power surges and limit your electricity usage during a solar weather event. You may also want to keep your car’s gas tank at least half-full so that you do not need to visit a gas station, which needs electricity to operate the pumps.

Regarding cell phones, many wireless carrier providers already maintain backup power generators and mobile cellular towers that they can deploy in the event of a natural disaster or other major incident.

Redundancy and resiliency are watchwords of all critical infrastructure providers, so even if the power grid did fail, consumers might have to worry more about how to keep their phones charged rather than whether they could stay online.

There is an increased chance of visibility for the northern lights, or aurora borealis, particularly across Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England and Wales due to the solar storm this weekend, the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office says.

There is a chance of visibility even further south, but the Met Office advises using long exposure on camera to capture the lights.  

“Multiple coronal mass ejections from the sun are expected to reach Earth in the coming days bringing the potential for aurora visibility over the UK, particularly on Friday night,” said Krista Hammond, Met Office space weather manager. 
“Aurora visibility may persist through Saturday night, but as it stands this is likely to be less widespread than on Friday night with northern parts of the UK most likely to continue to have the best viewing potential,” Hammond said. 

The Met Office said that they will continue to monitor the conditions of the sun.

A geomagnetic storm caused by solar flare activity could trigger numerous effects for life on Earth this weekend, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This kind of solar activity involves the release of energy from the sun that travels through space and eventually reaches Earth.

When that radiation hits the magnetic sphere surrounding the planet, it causes fluctuations in the ionosphere, a layer of the upper atmosphere. Those changes can directly affect satellites and other spacecraft in orbit, altering their orientation or potentially knocking out their electronics.

Here’s what that could mean:

CNN’s Ashley Strickland contributed reporting to this post.

People visit St Mary's lighthouse to see the aurora borealis, in Whitley Bay, England, on May 10.

The US government issued its first severe geomagnetic storm watch in nearly 20 years, advising the public of “at least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections” and sunspots that could arrive as early as Friday and continue through the weekend, according to scientists.

A severe geomagnetic storm, or G4, is the second-highest grade in the US government’s classification system.

The Space Weather Prediction Center has been tracking multiple strong flares emitting from a large cluster of sunspots on the solar surface since Wednesday. The cluster is 16 times the diameter of Earth. Radiation from this activity will begin to hit Earth’s magnetic field on Friday and last through the weekend, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

These five coronal mass ejections, or large clouds of ionized gas called plasma, are magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere, releasing from the sun in the direction of Earth.

Because the coronal mass ejections carry their own magnetic field, they can overwhelm power lines and induce electrical currents, said Rob Steenburgh, space scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center.

US scientists warn about possible communication outages or interference to GPS systems as at least five coronal mass ejections from the sun head toward Earth Friday and into this weekend.

The Space Weather Prediction Center referred to this as “an unusual event.” There have been three geomagnetic storms since December 2019, but all of them have been considered weak, according to the center.

So far, researchers have observed only three severe geomagnetic storms during the current solar cycle, which began in December 2019, according to the center.

Previously, a G5, or extreme geomagnetic storm, occurred in October 2003, resulting in power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa, according to the center. This current storm has been classified as a G4, the second-highest grade.

Other historical instances of space weather: In 1989, a space weather event led to a massive blackout in Quebec, Canada for more than nine hours after geomagnetic fluctuations damaged transformers and other important equipment.

In October, an extreme geomagnetic storm stronger than the one predicted for this weekend led to power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa, the SWPC said.

The largest known geomagnetic storm in history, known as the Carrington Event of 1859, caused telegraph stations to spark and catch fire.