Moderate G2 geomagnetic storm due to CME effects

Friday, 10 April 2015 17:52 UTC

Moderate G2 geomagnetic storm due to CME effects

Minor G1 geomagnetic storm levels have been observed according to the Wing-Kp index during the past 24 hours with the NOAA SWPC even reporting one period where the moderate G2 geomagnetic storming threshold was reached. Cause of this activity is a series of weak coronal mass ejection passages from likely a filament eruption and two lesser C-class solar flares. It was unsure if these coronal mass ejections would arrive at Earth but the solar wind data from ACE show two, possibly even three separate shock passages which managed to spark stunning aurora displays at high latitude locations during the past 24 hours. Keep on reading for some stunning auroral images taken the past night by photographers around the world.

Canada

Zoltan Kenwell (Lamont, Alberta)

Ireland

Adam Rory Porter (Malin Head)

Norway

Steven Henriksen (Lofoten)

Sweden

Marcel de Bont (Bjuröklubb, Västerbottens Län)

Göran Strand (Östersund)

United Kingdom

Carolyne Mazur Charrington (Treshnish, Isle of Mull)

United States

Sebastian Saarloos (Delta Junction, Alaska)

Les Conrad (Bear Island Lake, Babbitt, MN)

David Johnson (north of Grand Marais MN)

Mike Crawford (Fisher, MN)

Current conditions

The strength of the IMF (Bt) remains elevated near 16nT which is a moderate value and the direction of the IMF is southward but slowly trending towards zero. The speed of the solar wind has fallen below the 400km/s as CME effects start to wane. Geomagnetic activity will still be elevated at high latitude locations and Kp-values up to 4 remain possible in the hours ahead.

Any mentioned solar flare in this article has a scaling factor applied by the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), the reported solar flares are 42% smaller than for the science quality data. The scaling factor has been removed from our archived solar flare data to reflect the true physical units.

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