{"id":333676,"date":"2025-12-09T02:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333676\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T02:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:51:09","slug":"northern-lights-may-light-up-the-sky-tonight-across-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333676\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Lights may light up the sky tonight across Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published on Dec. 8, 2025, 8:19 PM<\/p>\n

Check for clear skies in tonight’s forecast, for a chance to see the Northern Lights!<\/p>\n

A massive eruption from the Sun over the weekend is fast approaching Earth, and will likely spark displays of the Aurora Borealis across Canada when it arrives, Monday night.<\/p>\n

On the afternoon of Saturday, December 6, a strong solar flare exploded from the Sun. Originating from sunspot 4299, which was aimed directly at Earth at the time, it also caused the eruption of a coronal mass ejection out into space, which is currently speeding towards us.<\/p>\n

\"Solar<\/p>\n

The M8-class flare captured at 20:39 UTC (3:39 p.m. ET) on Dec. 6, 2025, is shown in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (left). The CME that erupted due to this flare (three panels, right), captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory at 3-hour intervals after its eruption. (NASA, NASA\/ESA)<\/p>\n

Although the brightest portion of the cloud appears to expand away from the eastern limb of the Sun (shown on the right, above), this eruption actually formed a ‘halo CME’, as it expanded away in all directions. This indicates that the resulting solar storm is aimed more or less directly at Earth.<\/p>\n

Computer forecast models from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center also show this, along with revealing more details about the structure of the solar storm when it arrives here.<\/p>\n

\"CME<\/p>\n

This model run shows the CME arriving early on December 9 (UTC time), formed into a long, stretched-out ribbon at the time. It appears as though the portion that is immediately Earth-effective is lower density than the rest. (NOAA SWPC)<\/p>\n

Based on the apparent density of the solar storm, the speed it is travelling, and likely amount of energy the cloud absorbed from the M8-class flare, SWPC forecasters have issued a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm watch for overnight on Monday, December 8, through Tuesday, December 9.<\/p>\n

As of their Monday AM forecast, they are anticipating G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm levels to start off on Monday night. Levels could then ramp up to G2 (moderate) from 03-06 UTC (10 p.m. – 1 a.m. EST), G3 (strong) from 06-09 UTC (1-4 a.m. EST), and may persist at G2 to G3 strength from 09-15 UTC (4-10 a.m. EST).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on Dec. 8, 2025, 8:19 PM Check for clear skies in tonight’s forecast, for a chance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-333676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}