Look up! Auroras may be visible across Canada due to passing solar storms

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Solar activity is ramping up! The Aurora Borealis may be visible across Canada on the night of Monday, February 27, as eruptions from the Sun sweep past Earth.

On Friday, February 24, an explosion on the Sun sent an immense cloud of charged particles travelling out into space. When this 'coronal mass ejection' (CME) swept by Earth a few days later, on Sunday, Feb. 26, it combined with the effects of a fast-flowing solar wind to spark a geomagnetic storm.

This resulted in an amazing display of the Aurora Borealis across Canada, especially in regions farther north.

However, in a fairly rare occurrence, they were also spotted from southern Ontario!

These images from the VIIRS instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite shows the extent of the auroras overnight across Canada from February 26-27, 2023. Credit: CIMSS/SSEC/UW-Madison

Look up tonight!

More displays of the Northern Lights are expected across the country for the night of Monday, February 27.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center says that a two more CMEs — which erupted from the Sun on Saturday and Sunday — will be arriving late in the day on Monday, just as the heightened activity from Sunday and early on Monday is ramping down. SWPC forecasters are anticipating a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm to result from this.

While it's challenging to predict exactly how bright the auroras will be, and how far south they will be seen, the aurora 'oval' tends to cover most of the country during a G2 geomagnetic storm.

The only regions that tend to be left out under these conditions are southwestern Ontario, southern Nova Scotia and southwestern British Columbia.

Unfortunately, active weather across some parts of Canada will keep the skies cloudy overnight. Based on the cloud map shown above, the best places to watch from will be central and northern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and some parts of Atlantic Canada.

Thumbnail image courtesy Theresa and Darlene Tanner, who photographed the auroras on February 27, 2023 from central Alberta. (Team Tanner

Watch below: Calgary resident Scott Lang recorded the best auroras he's ever seen from the city on Feb. 27, 2023

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