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
Mostly background geomagnetic activity is expected at first, with aurora sightings unlikely and limited to high latitudes. Later on 01 Oct into 02 Oct (UTC), a Coronal Mass Ejection may glance Earth, bringing a chance of visible aurora from Scotland and similar magnetic latitudes.
Southern Hemisphere
Mostly background geomagnetic activity is expected at first, with aurora sightings unlikely and limited to high latitudes. Later on 01 Oct into 02 Oct (UTC), a Coronal Mass Ejection may glance Earth, bringing a chance of visible aurora from the far south of New Zealand and similar magnetic latitudes.
Issued at: 14:51 (GMT) on Tue 29 Sep 2026
Forecast overview
Space Weather Forecast Headline: No significant activity.
Analysis of Space Weather Activity over past 24 hours
Solar Activity: Solar activity has been Low during the last 24 hours, with just two Common-class flares observed. There are two sunspot regions on the Earth-facing disc. Both appear as small and simple features at this time.
A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the northwest disc which occurred around 28/1430 UTC has been assessed and is likely to give Earth a flanking impact (mostly passing ahead of Earth-orbit) either late day 3 (01 Oct) or more likely early day 4 (02 Oct).
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: Wind speeds were slow, declining from 340km/s to 300km/s by the end of the observation period. Interplanetary Magnetic Field was Weak, with the north-south component also varying weakly and largely negative (southward) directed. Geomagnetic activity was Quiet (Kp 0-2).
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: Solar radiation was at normal background levels.
Four-Day Space Weather Forecast Summary
Solar Activity: Activity is likely to be Low or Very Low, with a chance of further isolated Common-class flares.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: A CME which occurred around 28/1430 UTC has been assessed and is likely to give Earth a flanking impact (mostly passing ahead of Earth-orbit) either late day 3 (01 Oct) or more likely early day 4 (02 Oct). Solar winds are at background levels, and are likely to remain so in the absence of any CME influence during this period.
Geomagnetic activity is expected to be mainly Quiet perhaps with isolated Unsettled intervals. This becoming Unsettled to Active with a chance of G1/Minor storm and a slight chance of G2/Moderate storm intervals on days 3-4 (01-02 Oct), should we see glancing influence from the 28 Sep CME.
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: Solar radiation is expected to persist at background levels.
Issued at: 12:25 (GMT) on Tue 29 Sep 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.
Issued at: