English (UK)
An impressive aurora borealis has been spotted in the Spanish skies on the night of May 10-11, 2024. From Calar Alto, despite the clouds, the intense reddish phenomenon has been captured by several webcams and even by the astronomers present there, who have been able to grab it with their cell phones. Other northen lights may well be seen on May 11th and 12th due to the power of the ongoing solar flares.
On May 9th, 2024, the American NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's GOES-16 satellite observing the Sun detected strong coronal mass ejections from the giant sunspot called AR3664, the size of about 16 Earths. These ejections brought a solar wind that was directed right at our planet.
NOAA then warned of the strong geomagnetic storm that was going to hit us, raising the level to G5, the highest category, something that had not happened since 2003 and that entails potential risks for terrestrial communication and electricity transport networks, as well as for satellites in orbit. Visually, geomagnetic storms translate into spectacular aurora borealis or australis, phenomena quite common in polar areas where the Earth's magnetic field lines converge, but much less frequent at temperate latitudes like those of Andalusia.
From Calar Alto observatory, the phenomenon could be effectively seen, thru the clouds, from May 11, 2024 at twilight (22h15 local time) until almost three o'clock in the morning of May 12, with a northern horizon tinged with red, a color particularly intense around 22h30 (CEST). This color is due to the interaction of the strong solar wind with atoms of oxygen in the Earth's upper atmosphere, at about 250 km altitude, in the thermosphere.
In April 2023 already, a faint aurora borealis of the same reddish color could be observed from Calar Ato. It should be noted that another strong explosion (category X5.8) coming from the same spot AR3664 has been detected in X-waves in the early morning of May 11, disturbing radio communications in the Pacific area. If this explosion is followed by another coronal mass ejection (to be confirmed as soon as possible, e.g. with the SOHO SOHO satellite) directed towards the Earth, we will have more aurora borealis during the weekend.
We are approaching the maximum of the solar activity cycle (cycle with a period of about 11 years) and it would not be surprising to see other auroras at not so boreal latitudes until 2025, which the cameras and astronomers of Calar Alto will not miss!
Below is the accelerated one hour video of this event that could be registered with the cameras at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.
Calar Alto Observatory is one of the infrastructures that belong to the national map of Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (Spanish acronym: ICTS), approved on March 11th, 2022, by the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Council (CPCTI).
COMMUNICATION – CALAR ALTO OBSERVATORY
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