On the evening of Sunday, February 26, 2023, a coronal mass ejection (CME) reached Earth during a high-speed solar wind stream sweeping the space environment around our planet. The combination of these two solar phenomena produced a mild geomagnetic storm that produced a striking aurora visible as far south as southern England and central Germany.

This image was taken by photographer Hannah Baguley on the Island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn), North Wales, England. These conditions are expected to continue and aurora is expected for tonight, February 27. The CME was associated with a solar flare that occurred near midnight (UTC) on February 25. Fortunately, most of the epidemic has eluded us and no significant infrastructure impact on Earth has been reported. But what could we do if the CME was coming straight towards us?

Early warning is important. ESA’s upcoming Vigil mission will observe the “side” of the Sun to detect any potentially dangerous solar activity before it is visible from Earth. The mission will give us early warning of impending solar storms, thereby giving us more time to protect orbiting spacecraft, infrastructure on Earth, and researchers, now and in the future, unprotected by Earth’s magnetic field and vulnerable to powerful flares from our star.

In ESA’s SWE Service Portal you can monitor space weather events such as today’s aurora borealis, track recent events, find the latest data, and view a forecast of possible future aurora activity.