Watch: Strongest geomagnetic storm in years hits Earth, triggering green and purple aurora
Representational image of solar storms hitting the Earth.
The strongest geomagnetic storm in at least five years slammed the Earth and filled the sky with green and purple hues of aurora.
The solar storm was also reported to have caused "a major disturbance in Earth's magnetic field" which is likely to have impacted infrastructure and caused the northern lights to become visible to the human eye, said officials.
Level 4 Solar Storm pic.twitter.com/wFDvxeCpnv — SpaceWeatherNews (@SunWeatherMan) March 24, 2024
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Centre on Saturday (Mar 23) issued a geomagnetic storm watch and said that they have detected a coronal mass ejection.
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Coronal mass ejections or CMEs are created by a large cloud of magnetic and plasma field bursts from the corona of the sun.
Northern Lights shine across sky, sparkle over volcano in Iceland
After the solar storm hit planet Earth, it created beautiful green, purple and red auroras for the skywatchers across the skies in Europe, New Zealand and parts of the northern United States.
The auroras, also called the northern and southern lights, were created by the solar storm. However, they soon disappeared after the geomagnetic activity quickly waned.
March 25, 2024
South Indian Lake, MB#auroraborealis danced in the sky around 9:30 PM tonight. The fringe of pink #aurora color appeared as well. What a nice way to treat myself this spring break. Watch the serene beauty of the #northernlights during the spring break night! pic.twitter.com/DvzlK2uCLD — Rj Roldan ™ 🔅 (@rjayroldan) March 26, 2024
Taking to SpaceWeather.com, “aurora hunter" Alexander Kuznetsov in Finland said that the “aurora did one amazing dance just after the fall of darkness".
He said, “It started as a sharp dancing arc in the Southern horizon, and it quickly went overhead, producing some of the most vibrant red & purple auroras that I’ve seen in my entire aurora hunting career!”
Meanwhile, aurora watcher in southwest Finland, Matti Helin said that a “nice display” lasted just 20 minutes.
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This natural phenomenon was also captured in the skies above a volcano near the Icelandic town of Grindavik which erupted as the Northern Lights dazzled in the night sky.
Northern Lights shine over erupting volcano in Iceland https://t.co/WYipY80ZII #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #ClimateActionNow #ClimateCrisis #GlobalBoiling #Earthquake #CO2 #Iceland #Volcano #Grindavik #ToxicGas #Magma #Lava #SolarStorm #Aurora #XFlare pic.twitter.com/hchttu4SeR — firehorse23 (@firehorse249791) March 25, 2024
Auroras are created when multiple solar particles are sent by the sun towards Earth which disturbs the magnetic field and creates a geomagnetic storm.
(With inputs from agencies)