Male Cerulean Warbler, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, and Lark Bunting, for Tonelli et al. 2023. Magnetic field disruptions lead migratory birds astray. Always a delight to contribute illustrations to papers like this one! Big thanks to Morgan Tingley for requesting these.

You guys and gals, don't be surprised if things are getting a little freaky in the days to come. There have been huge solar flares during the last couple of days and they're headed for the Earth directly. For Germany they've said that they'll hit us starting from about the night of the 10th to the 11th of May and more to come. It will be around the evening time in the US I think.

We'll probably see northern lights even here in our lines of latitude. This is not just some interesting celestial phenomenon but energetically and electro magnetically this will be huge. Depending on how sensitive you are you'll notice shifts of varying kinds. I've been feeling this coming for the weekend for about one and a half weeks now but I supposed it was just about my personal experience, so I was very surprised when my mother told me about the solar activity yesterday. This is huge and this time I would vouch for it to be a considerable energetic renewal for all of Earth, the planet as well as its inhabitants. It will most likely also trigger bigger events on the planet, volcanic activities, tectonic movements and so forth. It will also bring a lot of movement inside of us human beings and I'm sure the animals and plants will feel it too. 🌱 We will be okay, this is a good thing but it will be intense and unforeseeable for the time being. 😃

Inclement weather on the Sun’s surface could affect infrastructure on Earth and in space, scientists are predicting, as our host star approaches its solar maximum.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a severe (G4) geomagnetic storm watch this week, the first since January 2005. Five Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have so far been observed and are expected to arrive on our planet today and over the weekend. Several strong solar flares were observed and associated with a large sunspot on the Sun’s surface, about 16 times as wide as Earth.

The oversized sunspot is “perhaps the most complex we’ve seen this cycle,” but the storm activity from it is “nothing that can’t be handled, as far as we understand it,” according Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at SWPC, who spoke in a press conference today. “The key point here is that critical infrastructure operators have been notified and that the activity is not over.”

There have been three G4 events since 2019, the most recent being in March 2024. But even that event was on the low-end of the G4 scale, and Dahl said that, while the team doesn’t expect as extreme an event as the 1859 Carrington Event (a G5-level storm), this weekend’s storm could sneak into the lower end of the G5 categorization. “We have a very rare event on our hands,” Dahl said.

Space-based observatories at L1—a point about one million miles from Earth—will monitor the initial arrival of particles from the Sun as they head towards our planet at about 1.8 million miles per hour (2.9 million kilometers per hour). Once the information is verified by agencies like NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, scientists and forecasters will have between 20 and 45 minutes to advise operators of critical infrastructure on how to best prepare for the particles’ arrival.

Brent Gordon, Chief of the Space Weather Services Branch at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said in the press conference that the team has been seeing new CMEs from the sunspot every six to 12 hours, with the most recent occurring around 3 a.m. ET.

The team expressed uncertainty about the severity of impacts on Earth depending on the orientation of the CMEs to the Earth, as well as whether multiple shocks will occur or just a singular event as the ejections depart the Sun. However, Gordon said that multiple shocks over the course of the weekend are possible.

Auroras may be visible as far south as northern Alabama, Dahl said, but don’t be dismayed if you’re even further south. “With new technology in our phones, we’re been seeing some amazing aurora shots even further south,” Gordon said. “Even things the human eye can’t see, your phone can.”

As far as what the public can do to prepare? Not much outside of what you would normally do to prepare for a power outage. If the storm affects critical electrical infrastructure it will impact high-voltage transmission lines, so not to worry about your home’s personal transformer. Just make sure—as you should for any emergency!—that you have the standards in emergency equipment, like a flashlight or a backup generator.

It missed us by 9 days

the astrophysicists are telling us that these sunstorms will become more fierce. This is something that apparently the science community wants to keep in their corner; even tho it will effect the entire planet

These are things that have been predicted from the oldest of the soothsayers. maybe the preachers can work it into their collection plate hits. Not laughing, just saying that these storms will not be ending and maybe the planet needs to learn more about them

Aiming for the stars with the right guidance.

wa.me/9340282643

The sky giving us a treat tonight - have you gone outside and tried to get a glimpse of the Aurora borealis? I love it when things like that happen. (And the iPhone is doing quite a good job too!)

The Sun's Big Show: Exploring Solar Maximum

Join us on an exciting journey to discover the Sun's super active phase known as Solar Maximum. Get ready for a spectacular adventure through solar storms, amazing auroras, and the Sun's magnetic magic. This is the story of the Sun at its most dramatic and powerful moments!

Solar flares and cosmic upgrades February 27/28!

Photo by Alexandre Crosier over Mont saint Michel in France One and maybe two CME’s produced a huge G3 class Solar flare which hit earth yesterday producing incredible rare red pink auroras. I didn’t t know the CME or Coronal mass ejection was in effect. I only know I felt totally and utterly exhausted as I moved into San Miguel de Allende yesterday afternoon and couldn’t budge from My hotel…

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Red Sprites, between stars and storms l Paul M Smith

I live in a major light pollution center and also it’s cloudy and I’m seething

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Aurora on Saturn's south pole.

Instagram: nasahubble

ngl I took many MANY pictures of the solar storm, but this one makes me laugh the hardest

Solar storm from hole in the sun will hit Earth on Wednesday (Aug. 3)

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present: a Solar Storm! 😆