"Even Carrington would be impressed" 😬
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=02&month=12&year=2025
Hopefully we just get "someone should check on our satellites" levels of auroras and not "A bunch of open questions in solar-terrestrial physics are about to be answered"
This is blowing up a bit: not trying to scare you all! There is a *gigantic* set of sunspots coming around the limb of the sun, comparable in size to the sunspots sketched by Carrington. They may or may not send some plasma our way. There is also a minor aurora event predicted for 2 days from now due to interactions between an eruption from this sunspot group and previously emitted solar wind/magnetic fields.
ESA has some good info on big solar storms here: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_weather/Flying_through_the_biggest_solar_storm_ever_recorded
No communication or navigation, faulty electronics and collision risk. At ESA’s mission control in Darmstadt, teams faced a scenario unlike any before: a solar storm of extreme magnitude. Fortunately, this nightmare unfolded not in reality, but as part of the simulation campaign for Sentinel-1D, pushing the boundaries of spacecraft operations and space weather preparedness.
Prof. Sam Lawler
Edwin G. 