Space Weather
Space weather describes changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space. Magnetic fields, radiation, particles and matter, which have been ejected from the Sun, can interact with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and surrounding magnetic field to produce a variety of effects.
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Aurora forecasts
Northern Hemisphere
The auroral oval is expected to be mainly at or near background levels in the coming days. Some brief, minor enhancements from solar fast winds or glancing slow Coronal Mass Ejections could lead to some high latitude sightings, however, limited hours of darkness at this time of year is likely to inhibit visibility of aurora.
Southern Hemisphere
The auroral oval is expected to be mainly at or near background levels in the coming days. Some brief, minor enhancements from solar fast winds or glancing slow Coronal Mass Ejections could lead to some high latitude sightings.
Issued at: 19:33 (GMT) on Sat 30 May 2026
Forecast overview
Space Weather Forecast Headline: Ongoing Chance of isolated Moderate solar flares, otherwise no significant Space Weather expected.
Analysis of Space Weather Activity over past 24 hours
Solar Activity: Solar activity is currently Low.
There are currently eight sunspot regions on the visible disc with AR4448 fading and the small AR4456 numbered. The majority of regions are magnetically simple with little growth observed in recent hours. AR4452 in the northwest remains of interest, however flare activity remains subdued. Elsewhere, AR4455 in the far northeast continues as a mature region with a large leading spot, the largest on the current disk.
No significant Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) were observed in available imagery.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: Solar winds indicated some likely ongoing fast wind enhancement. Wind speeds were Background to Slightly Elevated, 353-466km/s. The Interplanetary Magnetic Field, Bt, was Weak to Moderate. The important north-south component, Bz, varied between positive and negative Moderate levels, with a tendency for more prolonged negative periods between 29/1200UTC and 29/1900UTC. Geomagnetic activity was generally Quiet to Unsettled (Kp 1-3) with an Active interval (Kp 4) from 29/1800UTC to 29/2100UTC.
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: Solar radiation levels were at normal background values.
Four-Day Space Weather Forecast Summary
Solar Activity: Generally Low but with a chance of isolated Moderate solar flares.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: No significant Earth-directed CMEs currently feature in the forecast. However, some weak ejecta from minor events over the past couple of days could cause transitory enhancements to the solar wind from later Day 1 (30 May) onwards.
Minor enhancement to the solar wind is expected during the period, likely related to faster solar wind streams, with slightly-elevated to perhaps elevated winds at times.
Generally Quiet to Unsettled geomagnetic activity is expected, but with a chance of isolated Active periods and a slight chance of G1/Minor Geomagnetic storm periods, mainly in response to any potential transient CME influences.
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: Solar Radiation counts are at normal background levels and currently expected to remain so through the period.
Issued at: 12:19 (GMT) on Sat 30 May 2026
Solar imagery
SDO AIA-193
This channel highlights the outer atmosphere of the Sun - called the corona - as well as hot flare plasma. Hot active regions, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections will appear bright here. The dark areas - called coronal holes - are places where very little radiation is emitted, yet are the main source of solar wind particles.
Issued at:
SDO AIA-304
This channel is especially good at showing areas where cooler dense plumes of plasma (filaments and prominences) are located above the visible surface of the Sun. Many of these features either can't be seen or appear as dark lines in the other channels. The bright areas show places where the plasma has a high density.
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