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.

Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams

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Aurora forecasts

Northern Hemisphere

Geomagnetic activity is expected to be predominantly at background, resulting in only limited opportunities for visible aurora. Any viewing prospects will be further constrained by the short hours of darkness at this time of year at suitable viewing latitudes.

Southern Hemisphere

Geomagnetic activity is expected to remain largely at background levels, with auroral visibility likely to be limited and largely confined to the Antarctic continent.

Issued at: 09:39 (GMT) on Sat 20 Jun 2026

Forecast overview

Space Weather Forecast Headline: Low to Moderate Solar activity

Analysis of Space Weather Activity over past 24 hours

Solar Activity: Moderate activity with two M-class flares. These flares were from two of the three small regions near the southeast limb. The most complex of these has some mixed polarity magnetic structure, however their location makes a full analysis difficult. There are seven regions in total on the Earth-facing disc, however the other regions are all small, simple and largely inactive.

No Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) have been observed in available imagery.

Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: Slow wind conditions prevailed. Solar wind speeds were at Background, mainly 350-400 km/s. Interplanetary Magnetic Field, was Weak with the north-south component also Weak and variable in direction. Geomagnetic activity was Quiet to Unsettled (Kp1-3). 

Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: The count rate of energetic particles (high energy protons) was at Background with no solar radiation storms observed.

Four-Day Space Weather Forecast Summary

Solar Activity: Low to Moderate activity is expected with a chance of further M-class flares, mainly from the regions in the southeast disc. 

Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: No significant Earth-directed CMEs are expected, with only a minor glance possible from the 19 June southeast disc CME later on day 2 and into day 3 (22-23 Jun). Otherwise mainly slow wind conditions are expected until day 4 (24 Jun), when the next coronal hole fast wind enhancement may occur, although this is low confidence. Geomagnetic activity is expected to be mainly Quiet, with an Unsettled to Active spell possible if any CME glance is observed, or any fast wind  enhancement occurs.

Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: The count rate of energetic particles (high energy protons) is expected to be at Background with no solar radiation storms occurring.

Issued at: 00:11 (GMT) on Sun 21 Jun 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.

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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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