Two Blasts From The Sun May Herald Weekend Auroras

[Second update: Sunday 9pm New York time: Auroras are being seen tonight. A bit fleeting for those of us in central New England, but they have been seen as far south as the Boston area, and are currently being seen further north.]

[Update: one coronal mass ejection arrived very early Sunday morning. But the impact seems to have been weak, with no auroras resulting. Aurora forecasting is still not very accurate… these solar flares were very big, but nevertheless, didn’t do much for us yet, and it’s getting late…]

Quick note: two powerful solar flares occurred in the last 72 hours, creating high spikes in the rate of X-rays from the Sun.

Each flare created a coronal mass ejection that could arrive in a couple of days at Earth, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm. Consequently there’s a good probability this weekend, especially Saturday night into Sunday morning (in Europe and the US), of seeing northern and southern lights (auroras). [See this post for some advice as to how to infer whether the storms have started and/or are ongoing.]