Strongest solar storm since 2003 leads to Swiss auroras
Published: Sunday, May 12th 2024, 15:31
Back to Live Feed
The strongest solar storm in over 20 years has caused visible auroras in the night sky in Switzerland. The colorful spectacle was exceptionally visible to the naked eye, even from the lowlands.
The solar storm that caused the Northern Lights on Saturday night was the strongest geomagnetic storm since 2003, according to the US weather agency NOAA.
People published and shared numerous photos on social media. In some places it glowed magenta, in others there were violet-blue-green color spectacles and sometimes the sky turned purple. MeteoSwiss captured the natural spectacle on a weather camera in Ravoire near Martigny VS. The Eschenberg Observatory in Winterthur also observed the natural spectacle, according to the Zurich-based institution.
Auroras were also spotted on Sunday night. However, they were significantly weaker than the night before, as the weather service Meteonews reported on Sunday morning. The auroras were mainly visible from the mountains. According to the report, the colorful phenomenon was visible in eastern Switzerland from the Pizol and Säntis.
Rare in Alpine regions
Northern lights are generally rare in the Alpine region. On Saturday night, the lights could also be seen from the lowlands. The natural phenomenon is caused by solar storms that hit the Earth's magnetic field. The stronger the solar winds, the more southerly the northern lights are visible. The better this is visible and the darker the place you are in, the greater the chances of catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights, it is said.
The rare spectacle is caused by solar storms, so-called coronal mass ejections (CME), which hit the Earth's magnetic field. According to MeteoSwiss, auroras are caused by an interaction between charged particles from space and the Earth's atmosphere. A solar wind consists of charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, which are ejected from the sun.
As soon as the charged particles reach the atmosphere, they collide with the gases in the atmosphere. Energy and light are released during the collisions. The color of the Northern Lights depends on the type of gas particles with which the charged particles interact in the atmosphere and the altitude at which these interactions occur. The stronger the solar winds, the more southerly the northern lights are visible.
Damage during "Halloween storms"
According to the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the strength of such a storm is specified in three five-stage categories, of which category G describes geomagnetic effects triggered by the plasma cloud. Category S, on the other hand, refers to radiation effects caused by high-energy particles and category R to radio disturbances triggered by the X-ray flash.
The US weather agency NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) declared on Saturday night that it had observed "G5 conditions" during the current solar storm. This highest level was last observed during the so-called "Halloween storms" in October 2003, which led to power outages in Sweden and damage to transformers in South Africa.
NOAA had previously warned operators of critical infrastructure in the US, including satellites, power grids and airlines, to take precautions against disruption.
According to the NOAA experts, the region of origin of the solar storms is a large, complex sunspot cluster that is about 17 times the diameter of the Earth.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic