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November 11, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Powerful Solar Storm Could Trigger Far-Reaching Auroras across U.S.<\/p>\n
The sun just spat out several coronal mass ejections that could trigger a serious solar storm on Wednesday<\/p>\n
By Meghan Bartels edited by Lee Billings<\/span><\/p>\n A powerful solar storm could spark auroras as far south as northern California and Alabama on Wednesday, thanks to a particularly rambunctious area on the sun dubbed active region 4274 (AR4274). In recent days the region has unleashed multiple outbursts, including a solar flare that ranks as one of the most powerful of the current solar cycle.<\/p>\n That dramatic flash of light was followed by a coronal mass ejection, or CME, an event in which the sun propels a giant cloud of magnetized plasma into space. If Earth is in the firing line of a CME, it can wreak havoc on our planet in a range of phenomena referred to as space weather. AR4274 is aligned such that its material is heading toward Earth\u2014at some 3.3 million miles per hour, no less. Along the way, it could catch up and join forces with two previous, slower CMEs that occurred on Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n In response to the outbursts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch for Wednesday\u2014the fourth such alert of the current solar cycle. The scale behind this system runs from one to five, with a G4 watch deemed \u201csevere.\u201d An event of this magnitude can cause potential interference to power grids, spacecraft operations, satellite navigation and radio communications.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n These effects mean that, like terrestrial weather prediction, space weather prediction has been deemed a mission-critical activity that has continued even during the federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for aurora watchers, the peak of activity is expected to occur during North America\u2019s daylit hours, when any auroral activity will be invisible.<\/p>\n Geomagnetic turmoil is expected to continue into Thursday at a G3, or strong, level, which can trigger auroras as far south as Illinois and Oregon.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 11, 2025 2 min read Powerful Solar Storm Could Trigger Far-Reaching Auroras across U.S. The sun just spat out several coronal mass ejections that could trigger a serious solar storm on Wednesday By Meghan Bartels edited by Lee Billings A powerful solar storm could spark auroras as far south as northern California and Alabama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[18926,18925,1113,1887,7081,3317,811],"class_list":{"0":"post-32929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-auroras","9":"tag-farreaching","10":"tag-powerful","11":"tag-solar","12":"tag-storm","13":"tag-trigger","14":"tag-u-s"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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