The sun sure has woken up this week, unleashing a powerful X-class solar flare on Jan. 18 that hurled a colossal, fast-moving coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward Earth. That CME has now arrived, triggering severe (G4) geomagnetic storm conditions far earlier than initially forecast.

Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent.

A NOAA forecast has Northern Lights visible in northern U.S. states overnight on Monday, Jan. 19 through Tuesday, Jan. 20, as a “full-halo” CME heads to Earth.

By tracing solar flare gamma rays, scientists gain new insight into particle behavior that shapes space weather forecasts.

A coronal mass ejection, or CME, is a massive cloud of solar plasma and magnetic field that can be hurled into space following solar flares. If a CME is aimed at Earth, it can trigger geomagnetic storms, disrupt GPS, satellite, and radio communications, and cause auroras, often referred to as the northern lights.

Solar Orbiter has captured the clearest evidence yet that a solar flare grows through a cascading “magnetic avalanche.” Small, weak magnetic disturbances rapidly multiplied, triggering stronger and stronger explosions that accelerated particles to extreme speeds.

The Southern Lights may be visible from South Africa this evening with the right equipment, as a solar storm is expected to hit Earth. This is by no means guaranteed, though.

It is the strongest solar radiation storm in over 20 years, since October 2003. The powerful weather event is expected to trigger the stunning aurora Australis, also known as the southern lights. And Swinburne astrophysicist Dr Kirsten Banks told Yahoo News Australia this alert in particular is "very exciting".

A strong solar storm has once again impacted the earth today which could lead to some viewing opportunities for the northern lights in our area.