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Aurora Alert Tonight, August 4/5

from Michael Khan, 04. August 2010, 14:25

Pow! After a long stretch of uncanny calm the Sun erupted in a violent flurry of activity with a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) on August 1. This belched a stream of solar wind our way, vastly increasing the number of charged particles trapped in the Earth's magnetosphere.

The August 1 Coronal MassEjection, with the visible face of the Sun bursting into turmoil, shown in the extreme ultraviolet band in this image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Source: NASA/SDO

At high latitudes, this led to magnificent auroras (or "polar lights") observed mostly over North America yesterday. There may be more to come, another CME may be brewing today, so we might have another fine display of celestial fireworks tonight.

Weather permitting, why not step out and have a look tonight? I certainly will. Geomagnetic storms and auroras are famously difficult to predict, but I'll give it a try.