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
A solar wind enhancement has arrived on Saturday 31 Oct, increasing auroral activity. A chance of Aurora sightings during the hours of darkness on Sunday across northern Scotland, where skies are clear. Monday night onwards auroral activity is expected to reduce towards background levels.
Southern Hemisphere
A coronal hole fast wind arrived on Saturday 31 Oct, increasing auroral activity. A chance of Aurora sightings are likely during the hours of darkness on Sunday night UTC across the far south of New Zealand, where skies are clear. Monday night UTC onwards auroral activity is expected to reduce towards background levels.
Issued at: 14:42 (GMT) on Sun 1 Nov 2026
Forecast overview
Space Weather Forecast Headline: Continued chance of G1/Minor Geomagnetic Storms Day 1 (01 Nov) with elevated solar winds.
Analysis of Space Weather Activity over past 24 hours
Solar Activity: Very Low with no notable flares observed in the past 24 hours. There are two small sunspot regions currently on the visible disc.
No Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) were observed in available imagery.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: Solar winds began the period at Slightly Elevated levels, 430km/s, before increasing to Elevated to Strong levels, briefly peaking above 600km/s in response to a connection with the fast wind from around 31/1700UTC. Speeds slowly decreasing in recent hours towards Elevated levels, near 500km/s. The Interplanetary Magnetic Field, Bt, was Weak to Moderate. The important north-south component, Bz, was also Weak to Moderate, while favouring a southward orientation. Geomagnetic activity was Quiet to Active (Kp2-4) with a G1/Minor Storm (Kp5) observed in the 01/0000-0300 period, and a G2/Moderate Storm (Kp6) interval between 31/1800-2100 UTC.
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: No solar radiation storms were observed with the count rate of energetic particles persisting at Background.
Four-Day Space Weather Forecast Summary
Solar Activity: Very Low or Low activity is expected, with no significant sunspot regions currently on the Earth-facing disc.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: A connection to faster solar winds from a coronal hole has occurred, with Elevated solar winds expected Day 1 (01 Nov). From later on Day 2 (02 Nov) solar wind speeds are expected to begin to slowly decline, retuning towards generally Background levels by Days 3-4 (03-04 Nov).
Ongoing Unsettled to Active conditions (Kp3-4) are expected initially, with a chance of occasional G1/Minor Storms (Kp5) and still a slight chance of an isolated G2/Moderate (Kp6) storm interval. By Day 2 (02 Nov) geomagnetic activity is expected to decline to become Quiet to Unsettled (Kp2-3), and then mostly Quiet (Kp1-2) by the end of the forecast period.
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: No solar radiation storms are forecast with the count rate of energetic particles expected to persist at Background.
Issued at: 12:54 (GMT) on Sun 1 Nov 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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