The most powerful geomagnetic storm in 20 years made the colorful northern lights, or aurora borealis, visible Friday evening across the United States, even in areas that are normally too far south to see them. And the show may not be over. Tonight could offer another chance to view the aurora if skies are clear, according to the NOAAand Sunday could bring even more exposures going as far as Alabama.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said Saturday that the sun continued to produce powerful solar flares. It's above previously observed coronal mass ejections (CME), or explosions of magnetized plasma, which will not reach Earth until tomorrow. The agency has been monitoring a particularly active sunspot cluster since Wednesday and confirmed yesterday that it had observed G5 conditions – the level described as “extreme” – which have not been observed since October 2003. In a press release published Friday Clinton Wallace, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, said the current storm is “an unusual and potentially historic event.”
The Sun emitted two strong solar flares on May 10 and 11, 2024, peaking at 9:23 p.m. EDT on May 10 and 7:44 a.m. EDT on May 11. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the events, which were classified as Class X5.8 and X1.5 flares. https://t.co/nLfnG1OvvE pic.twitter.com/LjmI0rk2Wm
– NASA Sun and Space (@NASASun) May 11, 2024
Geomagnetic storms occur when solar flares interact with Earth's magnetosphere. While all this may sound scary, people on the ground don't really have anything to worry about. As NASA explained on These storms can disrupt our technology, however, and have been known to disrupt communications, GPS, satellite operations, and even the power grid.