Aurora chasers, get ready! The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a geomagnetic storm warning due to an incoming one-two punch from the sun, and we have just possibly received the first blow.
The predicted G3-level storm conditions could bring northern lights as far south as Illinois and Oregon (typically 50° geomagnetic lat.) tonight and tomorrow.
The incoming "punch" from the sun is expected to arrive in the form of two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that are expected to strike Earth in quick succession. The CMEs were launched during a rare double eruption of solar magnetic filaments on April 12 and April 13. Arriving hours earlier than expected a CME struck Earth's magnetic field at 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) according to Spaceweather.com. At the time of writing it is currently too early to tell whether the impact is the first CME or maybe a combination of the two.
Source: www.space.com
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