On October 10th, a powerful geomagnetic storm triggered by a solar flare hit the Earth, resulting in a spectacular display of the Northern Lights as a result of the combined interaction of Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. From Oceania to Europe and North America, a magnificent aurora show lit up the night sky in various locations around the globe.
The sun is a giant plasma, and its corona occasionally experiences eruptive phenomena, releasing massive amounts of energy. During intense solar activity, a coronal mass ejection process can propel billions of tons of solar material away from the sun’s surface at speeds of several hundreds of kilometers per second. This ejected solar material carries not only immense mass and kinetic energy but also powerful magnetic energy, which, upon impacting the Earth, can cause changes in the direction and strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that this storm could pose risks to critical infrastructure, including potential widespread voltage control issues leading to power grid failures, satellite navigation errors of up to tens of meters, and disruptions in low-frequency radio communications.
Solar activity also leads to the occurrence of auroras at the Earth’s poles. When high-energy particles generated from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create lights of different colors in the sky.
Scientists believe that visible auroras are likely to appear in the central regions of various states in the Eastern United States, as well as in the southern areas of the Midwest, with the southernmost sightings possible reaching Northern California and Alabama.
Below are images of the beautiful auroras visible in the skies of Australia, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States as of the early hours of October 11th, Eastern Time.