Brilliant colors strobed the skies across much of North America — viewed as far south as Florida — on Nov. 11 as a powerful geomagnetic storm arrived in the atmosphere, setting off the auroras.
The Space Weather Prediction Center warned the strong event could affect the power grid or communications and disrupt some GPS signals on Wednesday, Nov. 12, as the event continues. It could also mean another night of dancing colors in the skies over the northern horizon.
Social media feeds quickly filled with colorful photos on Nov. 11 as the sun set.
Geomagnetic storms occur when a coronal mass ejection from the sun's surface arrives in Earth's atmosphere. The ejection that caused the brilliant activity on Nov. 11 erupted from the sun earlier in the week, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.
The storm levels in the atmosphere reached G4 – severe – levels at 8:20 p.m. EST on Nov. 11, and the conditions were forecast to continue into the night, said Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at the center.
