People in Belgium may be in with another chance of seeing the Northern Lights on Friday and Saturday night due to a solar storm, which was accompanied by the largest solar flare since 2017 – a sign that the sun's "storm season" is still in full swing.
Two solar storms are on their way to Earth, space weather reporter Christine Verbeke (KU Leuven/NASA) told VRT. "The first may arrive as early as tonight, but it is not very powerful. There is a possibility that it will not even arrive. But the second solar storm is powerful and is coming straight at us."
The power of this second storm is related to a huge explosion on the sun on Thursday. The most powerful solar flare since 2017 erupted. The solar flare was considered a "class X9.0", where the letter X indicates the most powerful category of solar flares. The number indicates the strength of the solar flare within this category.
The flare was followed by a stream of charged particles from the sun, which is now on its way to Earth and is expected to arrive on Saturday night. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that the powerful solar flare also caused disruptions to radio communications in Africa and parts of Europe on Thursday.
Camera trumps the naked eye
Experts predict that the sun's charged particles will cause a "strong category 3 geomagnetic storm" on Friday night and this weekend. Satellites, communication and navigation systems may therefore be disrupted.
However, Verbeke expects the probability of visible Northern Lights in Belgium to be lower than in May this year. Back then, auroras could be seen all night in the country, even with the naked eye. At the time, it was an extreme category 5 geomagnetic storm (the last such storm had not been seen since October 2003).
"The chances that you will be able to see the Northern Lights in the coming nights as well as in May are lower. In the Netherlands and certainly in the north, the chance is higher but it can never be fully predicted," Verbeke said.
"You are more likely to see it through a (smartphone) camera than with the naked eye," she added. People keen to spot the northern lights should look towards the north and low above the horizon.
