Aurora Alert for September 26 and 27!

By Nancy Atkinson - September 26, 2011 at 11:00 PM UTC | Planetary Science
auroral-oval.jpg

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Skywatchers in northern Europe are already seeing some aurora activity as a strong-to-severe geomagnetic storm is in progress, according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and

SpaceWeather.com

. The fuel for this storm was a coronal mass ejection over the weekend that has now reached Earth. This is great news for skywatchers, as both the Northern and Southern lights should be spectacular. But this is not so good news for satellite companies. The

Goddard Space Weather Lab

reports a "strong compression of Earth's magnetosphere. Simulations indicate that solar wind plasma [has penetrated] close to geosynchronous orbit starting at 13:00 UT." Geosynchronous satellites could therefore be directly exposed to solar wind plasma and magnetic fields.

[caption id="attachment_89255" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Predicted auroral oval over the South Pole, for Sept. 27, 2011. Credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center."]

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The active region on the Sun will be pointed straight at Earth in few days as the Sun rotates, so this could be a week of high auroral activity. If you are able to capture images, send the to

Universe Today via email

or upload them to

our Flickr page

, and we'll share them! See an image below of the Sun from September 25, 2011, showing the Active Region 1302, courtesy of John Chumack.

For more information and updates see the links above, or the

Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

[caption id="attachment_89253" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The Full Solar Disk in Hydrogen Alpha Light 09-25-2011. Credit: John Chumack. Click for larger version on Flickr. "]

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com