Shortly after the CME arrived, auroras exploded over Levi, Finland:
Science is still discerning whether cosmic events trigger Earth weather, or whether Earth weather triggers solar storms. There’s no shortage of weather events in the Spaceweather gallery, including a cyclone over Italy.
UPDATE—we now have images of today’s M6.5-class solar flare (15:10 UTC). It erupted from sunspot 4549 at solar coordinates N8W53. That is well onto the Earth-facing disk.
What this means: the flare site is partially Earth-directed. A CME from this region could deliver a glancing blow in the next few days.
Storm in Progress
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 10/10/2026
STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS: Geomagnetic storms are underway on Oct. 10th following the impact of a dense CME at 1516 UTC. Current storm levels are G3 (Strong) with a chance of escalating to G4 (Severe). If that happens, naked-eye auroras could be seen across the USA tonight.
Above: A 195 angstrom difference movie from the GOES-19 Extreme UV Imager
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 10/09/2026
A SOLAR TSUNAMI: Sunspot 4549 erupted again on Oct. 8th, producing an M6.7-class solar flare. The blast also propelled a solar tsunami through the sun’s stmosphere. It was a near-global event:
UPDATE—we now have the image (above) of today’s M6.7-class solar flare (15:48 UTC). It erupted from sunspot 4549 at solar coordinates N11W18. That is close to the center of the solar disk.
Aurora, Taken from the flight deck by Matt Melnyk on September 22, 2026 @ Northern Manitoba, Hudson Bay.
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 09/22/2026
AURORAS LOVE EQUINOXES: Autumn begins this week, and so does aurora season. The northern autumnal equinox is today, Sept. 22nd. That is the cue for Arctic lights to switch on.
The reason is the Russell-McPherron effect. In 1973, UCLA researchers Christopher Russell and Robert McPherron figured out why geomagnetic activity has seasons. During the days and weeks around equinoxes, Earth’s tilt lines up our planet’s magnetic field with the sun’s, and the two fields connect. This creates pathways and portals in the magnetosphere where solar wind can enter.
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 09/17/2026
UNEXPECTED SATELLITE EXPLOSION: A Cold War spy satellite just broke apart in Earth orbit, and no one knows why.
The US Space Force detected the breakup on Sept. 13th when USA 32 unexpectedly shed a cloud of debris 775 km above Earth. The number of fragments is still unknown; Space-Track, the Space Force’s public catalog, has not yet released a count.
AI Illustration of the 5 Blue Bird Satellites crossing the sky
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 09/11/2026
SEE THE BLUEBIRD SATELLITES: The world’s largest commercial satellite antennas are about to fly over the USA. They’re called “BlueBirds.” AST SpaceMobile launched them to act as cell phone towers in space. This weekend, the satellites could be as bright as 1st magnitude stars. Sign up for our Backyard Astronomy Alert Service. Five minutes before the Bluebirds appear, your phone will buzz with a text message: “Go outside now and look up!”
New NASA Model – See the Animation of the Solar Wind Prediction from NOAA
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 09/07/2026
TWO CMES MIGHT HIT EARTH: A new NOAA forecast model predicts that two CMEs will sideswipe Earth on Sept. 8th. The one-two punch could spark a G2-class geomagnetic storm with high latitude auroras.
SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 09/01/2026
THE SUN IS ABOUT TO LOSE ITS MEMORY: That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study by researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland. The team examined 180 years of the aa index (a record of geomagnetic activity stretching back to 1844) and found that after odd-numbered solar cycles, the sun forgets what happened in the past.
We’re approaching such a moment now, as Solar Cycle 25 descends from its peak.
Their research begins with the little-known “Gnevyshev-Ohl rule.” Discovered in 1948, this rule says that solar cycles come in pairs, with the odd-numbered half stronger than the even. Take a look at this historical plot of sunspot numbers.
