An Obstreperous Sun Triggers Dazzling Northern Lights, as Seen From Space

A flurry of recent solar activity has set the night skies aglow over large portions of the Northern Hemisphere in recent weeks.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of light from auroras over western Canada in the early morning of December 17, 2023.Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

The Sun has become increasingly obstreperous lately, and the results here on Earth have been nothing short of dazzling – but also disruptive.

"A flurry of solar activity in mid-December 2023 sent energized particles crashing into Earth’s magnetosphere, producing undulating auroras across northern latitudes of our planet," NASA's Earth Observatory reports. Those Northern Lights have been spied by a number of polar orbiting spacecraft, including the SUOMI NPP satellite, which captured the image above on Dec. 17, 2023.

Here's another dazzling image from SUOMI NPP, this one acquired on Dec. 14:

The aurora borealis glimmers over a broad swath of Canada, as seen by the Suomi NPP satellite on Dec. 14, 2023. (Credit: Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies)

Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies

As the Sun has been heading toward a peak of solar cycle 25, aurora-producing activity has been on the rise. This has included solar flares ...