The Sun Blasted Out a Huge Flare and CME; We Could See Auroras on Halloween

[Judi Lynn]

OCTOBER 29, 2021 BY NANCY ATKINSON

Auroral fireworks for Halloween? It just might happen, depending on where you live.



NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this movie of a solar flare — as seen in
the bright flash at the Sun’s lower center — on Oct. 28, 2021. Credit: NASA/SDO

On October 28, 2021 the Sun blasted a “significant” X1 solar flare – the most intense class of flares. While the flare itself hit Earth eight and a half minutes later, an accompanying Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was also released. The slower moving CME arrives on October 30, and when it hits Earth’s magnetic field, a strong geomagnetic storm is possible on the 30th and possibly into the 31st as Earth continues to pass through the CME’s wake.

This should make for spectacular auroras in both hemispheres, aurora borealis in the north and the aurora australis in the south.

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https://www.universetoday.com/153132/the-sun-blasted-out-a-huge-flare-and-cme-we-could-see-auroras-on-halloween/

[Judi Lynn]

1. To star gazers: Fireworks show called Northern Lights coming

Oct. 30, 2021
Updated: Oct. 30, 2021 1:27 p.m.



FILE - Wade Kitner looks at the northern lights as he fishes in Ventura, Iowa, on Tuesday, June 23, 2015. A fireworks show that has nothing to do with the Fourth of July and everything to do with the cosmos is poised to be visible across the northern United States and Europe just in time for the Halloween weekend, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. (Arian Schuessler, The Globe Gazette via AP, File)Arian Schuessler/AP

CHICAGO (AP) — A fireworks show that has nothing to do with the Fourth of July and everything to do with the cosmos is poised to be visible across the northern United States and Europe just in time for Halloween.

On Thursday, the sun launched what is called an “X-class solar flare" that was strong enough to spark a high-frequency radio blackout across parts of South America. The energy from that flare is trailed by a cluster of solar plasma and other material called a coronal mass ejection, or CME for short. That's heading toward Earth, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a warning about a potentially strong geomagnetic storm.

It might sound like something from a science fiction movie. But really it just means that a good chunk of the northern part of the country may get treated to a light show called the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights.

Geomagnetic storms as big as what might be coming can produce displays of the lights that can be seen at latitudes as low as Pennsylvania, Oregon an Iowa. It could also cause voltage irregularities on high-latitude power grids as the loss of radio contact on the sunlit side of the planet.

https://www.chron.com/news/article/To-star-gazers-Fireworks-show-called-Northern-16577391.php