BOOM! Good Morning! M2.4 flare on the E limb from a new, incoming active region.

Boom! M1.6 flare from active region 14016. Tiny active region, not so tiny flare. Coronal dimming was observed, mostly S-ward. More soon!

Wow! Why doesn't it do this during total solar eclipses? Spectacular eruptive prominence near the SW limb this afternoon (UTC)! Look at that loop!

BOOM! Extremely long-duration M3.6 flare from active region 3998! X-ray flux was above M1.0 threshold for 1h20min! EUV (131A) imagery suggests a CME was launched, coronal dimming was evident, awaiting coronagraph imagery.

WOW! MASSIVE fast CME emerges from behind the W limb after a very long-duration M3.9 flare. The flare was likely much larger, mostly hidden behind the limb.

BOOM! X2.0 flare from AR 4001! This comes after M4.9 and M1.2 flares earlier in the day.

Why some big mid latitude aurora displays are purple and others red. In auroras close to the summer solstice oxygen reds mixing with nitrogen blues and violets, producing purple aurora. In auroras near winter solstice, the display is in Earth's shadow - no nitrogen blues, therefore no purples.

Two very impulsive M-class flares (M3.3 and M1.4) today from the very rapidly developing active region 4000. They were superimposed on a very long (6 hours and ongoing) surge in X-ray background flux, peaking near C7 and now at C4 level. More shortly!

Within 10 minutes of the first photo the sky erupted in this! The exposure is actually 2x shorter, had I kept it the same the photo would have been blown out - that's how bright the substorm was!

Jure Atanackov@jureatanackov.bsky.social · last yr.

We who are stranded at central to low mid-latitudes know something special is going on when at 45° MLAT you begin to see distinct greens. This is the quiescent stage between the 1st & 2nd substorm of the 10-11 May 2024 G5 storm. Minutes before the sky absolutely erupted in shadow-casting aurora.

We who are stranded at central to low mid-latitudes know something special is going on when at 45° MLAT you begin to see distinct greens. This is the quiescent stage between the 1st & 2nd substorm of the 10-11 May 2024 G5 storm. Minutes before the sky absolutely erupted in shadow-casting aurora.

Absolutely insane eruptive prominence today! The CME it produced wasn't bad either. Too bad it's on the far side.

Should we all adopt and use these? Do we already use these? Most are pretty common, but there are some pretty exotic ones here.

Boom! M1.8 from active region 3990. Fairly close to the central meridian and there may have been a (minor) CME. More on this soon.

Boom! Finally some flares: an M1.2 at 2:28 UTC from a new active region on the E limb and another M1.2 at 10:06 UTC from AR 3990. More soon!

Any red sprite hunters around here?

The Sun isn't even trying.

Incoming hot active region on the E limb! It blasted a C7.2 fairly long duration flare and a big, fairly fast CME. Impressive! Hopefully it stays active for another 5-7 days.

AR 3981 is still waving goodbye as it rotates behind the W limb, this time with a long-duration C7.6 flare.

Anyone else like this? No matter how many times I see aurora, I get all excited when I see it again - even if it's only faint rays and pillars poking just above the northern horizon.

Koliko nas je tukaj iz Slovenije? :)

Fun fact: despite being a pretty exciting year aurora-wise, 2024 got off to a far slower start than 2025. Even if 2025 feels slow so far, and it does to me. In 2024 we got our first geomagnetic storm on March 8th. We have already had 4 in 2025 so far. Fingers crossed 2025 is even wilder than 2024.

Have you ever seen natural airglow?

Update: Bz is holding around -10 nT with lots of fluctuations, but conditions remain favourable for aurora into mid latitudes, especially upper mid latitudes. High latitudes are getting a good show.

Jure Atanackov@jureatanackov.bsky.social · last yr.

Heads up Europe & North America! The high speed solar wind stream from the coronal hole is here, Bz is favourably negative & we are at G1 storm level. Bad news: the Moon is nearly full. Still, high and upper mid latitudes may see some good aurora activity tonight!

Heads up Europe & North America! The high speed solar wind stream from the coronal hole is here, Bz is favourably negative & we are at G1 storm level. Bad news: the Moon is nearly full. Still, high and upper mid latitudes may see some good aurora activity tonight!

The sunspot number is now dropping as the large complex of active regions, including 3981, slowly rotates behind the W limb. There are some active regions in the E half of the visible disk, but mostly simple with few spots. Magnetic loops over the E limb indicate new incoming active regions.

Seems active region 3981 did the SC25 thing - it took a nap while on the central meridian and woke up a few days later. Numerous M-class flares over the past 24 hrs: M2.3, M1.6, M3.2 and M7.5. No significant CMEs from these flares, although the M7.5 possibly produced a very faint partial halo CME.

You know what would be nice? A normal world & a proper G5 geomagnetic storm. Yes. That would be nice.

Meanwhile there was also a pretty impressive filament eruption (early in the day). The eruption and consequent CME were directed to the SW, well away from us. Just SC25 things. But it did look spectacular!

Active region 3981 has retained the three magnetic deltas over the past 12-18 hours, but has only produced a single M-class flare (M2.7). This is slowly turning into a SC25 classic - active east of the central meridian (CM), takes a nap while crossing the CM, wakes up later (?).

Active region 3981 over the past 24 hours: overall the region remains mostly unchanged, the intermediate and trailing parts are complex with multiple (3) magnetic deltas, there is potential for further flares. SWPC estimates a 20% chance for an X-class flare today.