Aurora photos: Stunning northern lights glisten after biggest geomagnetic storm in 21 years

News
By published

An immense geomagnetic storm caused auroras as far south as Florida for the first time in 21 years after the sun unleashed a wave of solar flares and at least seven coronal mass ejections at Earth.

Northern lights seen from Lake Erie aboard a cruise ship.
Hannah Osborne, planet Earth and animals editor, was on the Viking Cruise ship Octantis on Lake Erie. (Image credit: Hannah Osborne/Future)

Spectacular images have captured the moment stunning aurora displays lit up the night sky during the strongest geomagnetic storm in 21 years, which hit Earth over the weekend. The phenomenon occurred after several large solar storms crashed into our planet's atmosphere, producing green and blue hues in skies across the Northern Hemisphere as far south as Florida. 

The last time auroras were seen this far south was October 2003, when an extreme G5 storm — the highest category for geomagnetic storms — smashed into Earth. 

Live Science editors were able to capture the event. Hannah Osborne, planet Earth and animals editor, was on the Viking Cruise ship Octantis on Lake Erie reporting on the work on-board scientists are doing to assess the health of the Great Lakes, when the solar storm hit. 

Related: 'Extreme' geomagnetic storm that painted Earth with auroras this weekend was the most powerful in 20 years

"It was an incredible experience," she said. "Staff on board were buzzing, saying they'd never seen anything like it before. They turned off all the lights and the whole sky just lit up and turned pink and green. There were streaks everywhere you looked."

On the other side of the planet, editor-in-chief Alexander McNamara saw the celestial light show from southwest England, an area of the country unused to such a spectacle. 

This weekend's geomagnetic storm, which also temporarily reached G5 levels, began at around midday ET on Friday and persisted until the early hours 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 statement. 

The immense geomagnetic storm originated from an enormous sunspot called AR3664, which is more than 15 times wider than Earth. Last week, it unleashed a flurry of solar flares, including at least five that launched coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or clouds or plasma and radiation at our planet. These clouds then smashed into the magnetic field around Earth, temporarily weakening our protective shield and enabling charged particles to excite gases in the atmosphere, which created the stunning light shows witnessed this weekend. 

The colors produced in an aurora depend on which gases are excited by the particles from the sun and how much energy is exchanged between them. Oxygen is responsible for the green and red hues seen during the recent geomagnetic storm, while pink hues were caused by either oxygen or nitrogen.

After the initial storm, the sun continued to spit out solar flares, including more X-class flares — the strongest the sun is capable of producing. Some of these flares also launched CMEs but they were not directed toward Earth. The gigantic sunspot is now facing away from our planet and is unlikely to bombard us any further.

Photos from this exceptional event can be seen below. 

Northern lights glow in the sky on May 11, 2024 in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia of China.  (Image credit: VCG / Contributor via Getty Images)

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. (Image credit: NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty Images)

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 May 11, 2024 in Latourell, Oregon. (Image credit: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / Stringer via Getty Images)

Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), colorful lights shift, are seen from Baldersnas Ingaro on the archipelago of Stockholm, Sweden on May 11, 2024. (Image credit: Anadolu / Contributor via Getty Images)

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 May 11, 2024.  (Image credit: Michael Seamans / Stringer via Getty Images)

Aurora borealis was seen over the county of Somerset in south west England. (Image credit: Alexander McNamara/Future)

Hannah Osborne captured this stunning image of the northern lights seen from Lake Erie on the Viking Octantis cruise ship.   (Image credit: Hannah Osborne/Future)

Spectacular images have captured the moment stunning aurora displays lit up the night sky during the strongest geomagnetic storm in 21 years. (Image credit: Hannah Osborne/Future)

The immense geomagnetic storm originated from an enormous sunspot called AR3664, which is more than 15 times wider than Earth. (Image credit: Hannah Osborne/Future)

Hannah Osborne, planet Earth and animals editor, was on the Viking Cruise ship Octantis on Lake Erie. (Image credit: Hannah Osborne/Future)
Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
For the science geek in everyone, Live Science offers a fascinating window into the natural and technological world, delivering comprehensive and compelling news and analysis on everything from dinosaur discoveries, archaeological finds and amazing animals to health, innovation and wearable technology. We aim to empower and inspire our readers with the tools needed to understand the world and appreciate its everyday awe.