The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday (May 10) triggering northern lights, a spectacular celestial light show, in the skies across the Northern Hemisphere.
The colourful display, also known as aurora borealis, was seen in most parts of Europe. The northern lights also illuminated the night sky over some parts of the US, Canada, and Australia.
For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a watch for a “very rare” severe geomagnetic storm, which was upgraded to an extreme G5 storm later on Friday. This is the first G5 storm since 2003, and could affect the power grid, as well as radio communications due to potential disruptions caused by changes to Earth’s magnetic field.
On Friday night, Aurora borealis caused by the storm began to appear in Europe, Canada, and several northern US states. Around midnight BST, lights were visible over Europe, spotted as far north as Glasgow, Scotland, across the United Kingdom, and as far south as Switzerland.
It was the strongest such storm to reach Earth since Halloween 2003. That storm was strong enough to create power outages in Sweden and damage transformers in South Africa. The effects could continue through the weekend as a steady stream of emissions from the sun continues to bombard the planet’s magnetic field.
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