Stargazers were treated to a stunning light display that illuminated the sky in southern Australia courtesy of a severe geomagnetic storm, with more set for tonight.
Aurora Australis put on one of its best shows of the last decade on Friday night due to a number of huge solar fares and ‘coronial mass ejections’ emitted from the sun earlier in the week.
The impressive Southern Lights, usually only seen in Tasmania, were visible in Victoria, SA and WA with the Bureau of Meteorology’s Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre issuing a warning for G5 (extreme) geomagnetic storm conditions on Saturday.
The phenomenon, caused by solar wind disrupting the Earth’s ionosphere which agitates gas particles and produces light, is southern hemisphere’s counterpart to the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis.
Red light is generally seen at higher altitudes, then green light and blue at the lower levels.
The solar wind can also affect electrical and communications infrastructure such as power grids, satellite signals, GPS services and TV or radio broadcasts.
Aurora Australis was seen as far north as SA (pictured), Victoria and northern WA on Friday
The phenomenon is caused by solar wind agitating gas particles in the ionosphere which causes light
The lights from Coodlie Park Eco Retreat on the Eyre Peninsula (picture: Krystina Rose)
The bureau issued an updated alert on Saturday.
‘Severe geomagnetic storm in progress. Aurora may be observed during night hours in good observing conditions as far as middle latitudes,’ the bureau said.
In a media release it said there was no danger to humans.
‘The warning issued for this event informs government and critical infrastructure operators so they can take action to mitigate potential impacts on infrastructure assets and essential services,’ the release said.
‘The Bureau continues to monitor the situation and will provide updates of significant changes.’
While a solar storm does have the potential to cause damage to our power and radio networks, there is no danger to humans.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) in the US through its Space Weather Prediction Center issued a global G4 Geometric Storm Watch for the first time since 2005.
‘This is an unusual and potentially historic event,’ said Clinton Wallace, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center director.
There is the potential of seeing the Aurora Australis as far north as Sydney and Perth, mostly in dark sky environments away from cities.
Incredibly, one photographer posted a picture of the phenomenon taken in Karratha in WA’s Pilbara region, which is further north than Mackay in Queensland.
Massive solar flares earlier in the week caused the geomagnetic storm
The lights could be seen from all over Australia’s south (picture: Linda N Irwin-Oak)
The Bureau of Meteorology said electrical and communications infrastructure could be affected
The sun is continuously erupting and hurling particles into space, but given that its 93million miles from Earth, it rarely reaches us, and if it does it only causes a minor G1 or G2 storm.
If a geomagnetic storm reaches a level five, satellites could crash into other objects in space or the atmosphere and suffer physical damage from supercharged ‘killer electrons’ which would hurtle into important sections of hardware, rendering it useless.
The last severe geomagnetic storm occurred in 2022, which destroyed up to 40 Starlink satellites worth more than $50million, sending them back toward Earth but fortunately they burned up in the atmosphere.
People have reported Friday that their Starlink internet has gone down following the first blast from space hitting Earth around 1:45pm ET.
It remains unlikely that wireless connectivity will be directly affected by the storm because these networks rely on different radio frequencies than GPS systems.
Even if GPS features are affected, people will likely still be able to maintain a map showing their rough location.
The electrical grid is more prepared than it was in similar past geomagnetic storms because they now have backup power generators and mobile cell towers that can be put into action if cell towers lose power.
Flight patterns can also be affected during these storms because commercial airlines are warned to stay away from the Earth’s poles as they risk losing communication and navigation systems.