TORONTO – The northern lights put on a show over the weekend, but the best may be yet to come.
A giant sunspot, one of the largest in this solar cycle, has turned towards Earth. As it’s been rotating into view, it’s unleashed a few solar flares and some coronal mass ejections (CME).
As reported on Friday, the CMEs were expected to impact Earth over the weekend, and they did. But on Monday afternoon, a geomagnetic storm was under way. Whereas the geomagnetic storm on Sunday was G1 (minor), it hit G4 (severe) Monday afternoon. This could actually cause power disruptions and GPS issues.
READ MORE: How solar storms could leave us in the dark
If the auroral hole, which needs to dip south in order for us to get a spectacular light show, is in the right position, we could see a display Monday night.
This new storm is the result of a third, faster CME hit Earth which reached Earth around 3 p.m. ET.
If you want to see if the aurora will be visible from your location, check out SWPC’s 30-minute aurora forecast.
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