A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the active sunspot AR3842 on October 1st. On the 3rd, it was reported that the sunspot AR3842 had exploded again, and now two CMEs were headed for Earth. The forecast predicted that the first CME would strike Earth on October 4th and the second on October 6th. Geomagnetic storms were expected to arrive on the weekend of October 5th and 6th, bringing with them the northern lights.
The news improved when smaller CMEs were also observed heading for Earth. However, forecasting weather with 100 percent accuracy on Earth is challenging enough, let alone predicting the northern lights when something is arriving from the Sun that’s 150 million kilometers away.
The lights started slowly, becoming visible on the night of the 6th, but the big show began in the mountains as soon as it got dark on October 7th. The intensity of the lights seemed to increase four separate times that night, revealing colours beyond just green to our naked eyes. As we enjoyed the northern lights, the sunspot AR3842 was not done yet. A bigger explosion occurred on the 7th, and a more powerful CME was on its way, striking on the night of October 10th. But that’s a story for another time.
