Sun Fires Multiple Flares And CMEs — What It Means For Northern Lights

InnovationScienceSun Fires Multiple Flares And CMEs — What It Means For Northern LightsByJamie Carter,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky.Follow AuthorApr 24, 2026, 03:35am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.NASA's SOHO Observatory took this image of a solar flare on April 23, 2026. NASAThe northern lights may be visible this weekend after the sun appeared to wake from a slumber. Solar activity reached high levels, with five M-class solar flares on the sun on Thursday, April 23, which were followed by a rarer X2.4-class event on Friday, April 24. An eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the sun’s atmosphere, a solar flare is caused by twisted magnetic fields, typically above sunspots — cooler, darker regions of the sun’s surface that form when clumps of its magnetic field well up from deep within the sun.It’s too early to say exactly what the effects may be, but NASA’s orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory tracked a coronal mass ejection (CME) — a cloud of super-charged particles — traveling in the direction of Earth in the wake of one of the M-class flares. It also caught comet C/2025 R3 (Pan-STARRS) in its images as it approaches the sun — due to get closest on April 27. According to Spaceweather.com, a G1-class geomagnetic storm is possible on Sunday, April 26, when the CME may graze Earth's magnetic field. More solar flares are likely on Friday, April 26, and through the weekend. “Isolated G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storming conditions are possible on April 26 in response to the arrival of the glancing CME impact,” stated a space weather forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. MORE FOR YOUWhat Causes The Northern LightsSolar flares don't cause auroras. Traveling at the speed of light, radiation from a solar flare takes...