{"id":34012,"date":"2026-03-17T12:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/?p=34012"},"modified":"2026-03-17T12:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:44:25","slug":"watch-for-auroras-march-19-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/?p=34012","title":{"rendered":"Watch for auroras March 19-20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Space Weather News for March 16, 2026
\nhttps:\/\/spaceweather.com<\/a><\/p>\n

EQUINOX AURORA WATCH: <\/span><\/strong>The first auroras of northern spring are only days away. A CME (described below) is expected to hit Earth on March 19th<\/strong> just hours before the vernal equinox. Its impact could spark G2<\/a>-class geomagnetic storms with photographic auroras at mid-latitudes.<\/p>\n

Would you like an instant text message when the CME arrives? Sign up for CME Impact Alerts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE AND CME: <\/span><\/strong>Surprising forecasters, sunspot 4392 produced an M2.7-class<\/a> solar flare on March 16th (1215 UTC). NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme ultraviolet flash:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the Richter Scale of solar flares, “M2.7” is not very strong. However, this one hurled a CME<\/a> almost directly toward Earth. NOAA models<\/a> and NASA models<\/a> agree: The CME will arrive on March 19th, mere hours before the northern vernal equinox.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is perfect timing because auroras love equinoxes. It’s called the “Russell-McPherron effect<\/a>.” At this time of year, the magnetic field of Earth can link to the magnetic field of the sun, providing a superhighway for solar wind to enter our planet’s magnetosphere. Even a weak CME can can penetrate to spark mid-latitude auroras.<\/p>\n

There’s more: A New Moon on March 19th will provide dark skies for long exposures. Even if you can’t see<\/em> the auroras, you might be able to photograph them. Point your smart phone at the sky and take a nighttime exposure. You could be surprised by what appears on the screen.<\/p>\n

Aurora alerts:<\/strong> SMS Text<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space Weather News for March 16, 2026 https:\/\/spaceweather.com EQUINOX AURORA WATCH: The first auroras of northern spring are only days away. A CME (described below) is expected to hit Earth on March 19th just hours before the vernal equinox. Its impact could spark G2-class geomagnetic storms with photographic auroras at mid-latitudes. Would you like an … Continue reading Watch for auroras March 19-20<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[133],"tags":[653,197],"class_list":["post-34012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy-news","tag-aurora-alert","tag-cme"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34013,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34012\/revisions\/34013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}