Earth is on aurora watch following a dazzling solar storm

The sun has been a bit fussy lately, emitting a series of solar flares on Friday. Now scientists are on aurora watch in anticipation of the coronal mass ejections making their way to Earth’s atmosphere.

Some of the rays have already struck across the planet, creating auroras similar to the one captured by a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station last week. According to spaceweather.com, the CME impact was considered strong enough to spark up a few auroras around the Arctic Circle but too weak to cause any geomagnetic storms.

“I drove out as soon as I noticed the arrival of the glancing CME,” photographer Gunjan Sinha of Saskatoon, Canada, told the website. “I travelled ~20km away from the city lights, stopped and waited with my camera ready to go. Soon after that, almost the entire north half of the sky exploded with colourful auroras.”

Fairbanks, Alaska’s Thomas McCarty told the website “It was the first good show I have seen this season.”

But it’s not over yet.

There is still a chance that the CMEs will produce storms as Earth continues to pass through the rays. If any storms are created, spaceweather.com said that they will be minor (G1) size geomagnetic storms. These level storms are classified as being able to cause weak power grid fluctuations, minor impacts on satellite operations, affect migratory animals and create visible auroras at high altitudes.