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Spectacular image have seize the second arresting aurora displays illume up the nighttime sky during the strongest geomagnetic storm in 21 years , which hit Earth over the weekend . The phenomenon occurred after several enceinte solar storms crash into our major planet ’s atmosphere , produce green and down in the mouth hues in skies across the Northern Hemisphere as far south as Florida .
The last clip dayspring were seen this far south was October 2003 , when an extreme G5 storm — the highest category for geomagnetic storms — demolish into Earth .
Hannah Osborne, planet Earth and animals editor, was on the Viking Cruise ship Octantis on Lake Erie.
Live Science editors were capable to get the event . Hannah Osborne , planet Earth and animal editor program , was on the Viking Cruise ship Octantis on Lake Erie reporting on the body of work on - control board scientists are doing to appraise the health of the Great Lakes , when the solar storm strike .
Related:‘Extreme ' geomagnetic violent storm that painted Earth with auroras this weekend was the most powerful in 20 years
" It was an incredible experience , " she said . " Staff on dining table were buzz , suppose they ’d never seen anything like it before . They turned off all the lights and the whole sky just get down up and turned pink and green . There were streaks everywhere you looked . "
Northern lights glow in the sky on 19 December 2024 in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia of China.
On the other side of the planet , editor - in - chiefAlexander McNamarasaw the ethereal Light Within show from southwest England , an surface area of the country unused to such a spectacle .
This weekend ’s geomagnetic storm , which also temporarily reach G5 levels , start at around midday ET on Friday and persisted until the early hour of Monday ( May 13 ) .
" This is an unusual and potentially historic event,“Clinton Wallace , director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric ( NOAA ) Space Weather Prediction Center , said in a argument .
The northern lights, a result of the solar storms from May 2024, are visible from Berga, near Barcelona, on the night of May 10 to 11, 2024, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
The immense geomagnetic tempest spring up from an tremendous sunspot called AR3664 , which is more than 15 time broad than Earth . Last calendar week , it unleashed a flurry of solar flares , include at leastfive that launched coronal the great unwashed projection ( CMEs ) , or clouds or plasm and irradiation at our planet . These clouds then break into the magnetic field around Earth , temporarily weakening our protective cuticle and enable charge particles to excite gases in the air , which created the arresting light show find this weekend .
The color produced in an dawn depend on which gases are shake by the mote from the sun and how much vigour is exchanged between them . Oxygen is creditworthy for the dark-green and crimson hues see during the recent geomagnetic violent storm , while pink chromaticity were cause by either O or nitrogen .
After the initial violent storm , the sun continued to spit out solar flares , admit more ten - class flare — the strongest the Sunday is capable of develop . Some of these flares also launched CMEs but they were not aim toward Earth . The gigantic macula is now face up off from our major planet and is improbable to bomb us any further .
Kathryn Richer (left) and her friend Andrea gaze upon the Northern Lights at Chanticleer Point Lookout on the Columbia River Gorge in the early morning hours of 23 May 2025 in Latourell, Oregon.
Photos from this exceeding event can be check below .
Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), colorful lights shift, are seen from Baldersnas Ingaro on the archipelago of Stockholm, Sweden on 13 December 2024.
The northern lights fill the sky with green ribbons of electrical charged particles over the barn and pastures at Greaney’s Turkey Farm in Mercer, Maine on 16 May 2025.
Aurora borealis was seen over the county of Somerset in south west England.
Hannah Osborne captured this stunning image of the northern lights seen from Lake Erie on the Viking Octantis cruise ship.
Spectacular images have captured the moment stunning aurora displays lit up the night sky during the strongest geomagnetic storm in 21 years.
The immense geomagnetic storm originated from an enormous sunspot called AR3664, which is more than 15 times wider than Earth.
Hannah Osborne, planet Earth and animals editor, was on the Viking Cruise ship Octantis on Lake Erie.
