this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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I saw it for the first time in a similarly intense storm last year and it was remarkable. It seems like it might be a stormy night locally but this could be your best viewing chance in a while. They have northern and southern hemispheric projections on that Space Watch website.

edit: Hot damn, it just reached the highest threshold I've seen in a year:

ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 8, 9-

Threshold Reached: 2025 Jun 01 1346 UTC

Synoptic Period: 1200-1500 UTC

Active Warning: Yes

NOAA Scale: G4 - Severe

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at

www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 45 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.

Induced Currents - Possible widespread voltage control problems and some protective systems may mistakenly trip out key assets from the power grid. Induced pipeline currents intensify.

Spacecraft - Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low earth orbit satellites, and tracking and orientation problems may occur.

Navigation - Satellite navigation (GPS) degraded or inoperable for hours.

Radio - HF (high frequency) radio propagation sporadic or blacked out.

Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as Alabama and northern California.

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[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago

It's the only time I've personally seen the atmosphere as a dynamic thing. Even in the high altitude Rockies it's just a minute difference between gas compositions and pressure levels that I never have to engage with. Sometimes a cloud is neat, sometimes a pilot dies because wind happened, it's just a static blue thing that's poisoning me. When I saw the aurora in our most intense solar storm in 20 years, it felt like what I imagine seeing the atmosphere from the edge of space would be like. The magnetosphere was an actual thing I could plainly watch interact with the most violent thing in the solar system. Atmospheric gases were actual lenses filtering the energy of millions of atom bombs with a sense of overwhelming scale like looking up at a mountain. It totally made sense how that's historically been a religious experience. That's earth battling a force beyond anything we could harness until now.