\tSpace Safety<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t12\/11\/2025
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\t\tIn brief<\/p>\n
On 11 November 2025, an intense solar flare was observed, with a peak around 10:04 UTC. This was followed less than an hour later with the observation of a coronal mass ejection (CME), with an initial speed estimated to be around 1500 km\/s and arriving at Earth on 12 November in the late evening or on 13 November in the early morning, although these estimates include some uncertainty.<\/p>\n
The impact of the resulting geomagnetic storm is estimated to be severe and might affect satellites, power grids, and navigation systems. The event does not pose a direct biological risk to people on Earth.<\/p>\n
The European Space Agency (ESA) is closely monitoring this powerful space weather event and is collecting detailed information from all its expert service centres. The following description is based on the information currently available and might be subject to change.<\/p>\n
This page was last updated on 12 November 2025, at 14:00 CET.<\/p>\n
\tIn-depth<\/p>\n
\tThree space weather events back-to-back <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSummary of the space weather event triggered on 11 November 2025 and its consequences<\/a><\/p>\n Activity on the surface of the Sun generates space weather that spreads outwards, across the Solar System. Earlier this week, two strong, X-type solar flares<\/a> have been observed from the same solar active region (NOAA Active Region 14274) and have generated two CMEs that arrived at Earth this morning triggering a severe geomagnetic storm of intensity G4.<\/p>\n On 11 November, a more powerful, X5.1-class solar flare was observed, with a peak around 10:04 UTC. Following the flare, shock waves have been observed on the solar surface radiating away from the active region.<\/p>\n This was followed less than an hour later with the observation of a CME by SOHO<\/a>\u2019s LASCO and GOES-19<\/a>\u2019s CCOR-1 coronagraphs. Our initial observations show an initial speed of around 1500 km\/s, with an estimated arrival to Earth on 12 November in the evening, or on 13 November in the early morning although these estimates include some uncertainty.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSOHO\u2019s view of the early November 2025 coronal mass ejections \tEstimated impact<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tObservation of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet by the Solar Dynamics Observatory\u2019s AIA instrument on 11 November, provided by the Royal Observatory of Belgium \/ SIDC.<\/a><\/p>\n Major solar flares of this type are known to impact radio communication and satellite navigation applications (GNSS) in the regions facing the Sun when the event occurs. For this event, those regions Europe, Africa, and Asia.<\/p>\n “Our planet was hit by two consecutive CMEs last night triggering a severe geomagnetic disturbance. We are expecting a third one to arrive later today or tomorrow. The impact of the third CME heavily depends on whether it merges with the first two or not,\u201d says Juha-Pekka Luntama, Head of ESA Space Weather Office.<\/p>\n \u201cThe geomagnetic storm is estimated to continue at severe level, and it may impact satellites, power grids, and navigation systems. We have observations of further CMEs erupting from the Sun, so severe space weather activity is foreseen to continue for second half of this week.”<\/p>\n While these effects are concerning for technology, they do not pose a direct biological risk to people on Earth thanks to our planet’s protective atmosphere and magnetosphere.<\/p>\n \tNew projects to fine-tune estimations<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tRadio interference from the 11 November 2025 flare as observed in Austria, provided by eCallisto radiospectrograms, a federated product from the Institute for Data Science (FHNW).<\/a><\/p>\n Big solar storms are common so close to solar maximum. Although it is possible to forecast the probability of an eruption, the exact moment of the event \u2013 when the elastic band snaps \u2013 and the precise magnitude are still difficult to predict.<\/p>\n The big active areas on the Sun\u2019s surface are closely monitored at all times and ESA maintains a host of space weather services used by industry and spacecraft operators to be able to respond quickly to a space weather event.<\/p>\n The bottleneck of information has been the estimation of the time of arrival of the CME and that of the severity of the resulting geomagnetic storm. To reduce these forecast uncertainties, ESA is developing a set of new missions.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpace weather reporter Vigil in deep space<\/a><\/p>\n ESA’s Vigil<\/a> mission will pioneer a revolutionary approach by observing the ‘side’ of the Sun from Lagrange Point 5<\/a> in deep space, unlocking continuous insights into solar activity. To be launched in 2031, Vigil will detect potentially hazardous solar events before they come into view as seen from Earth, giving us advance knowledge of its specificities and offering invaluable time to protect spacecraft and ground infrastructure.<\/p>\n Current in-situ measurements of solar flair and CME are done from Lagrange Point 1<\/a> (L1) and allow us to predict the impact of this solar storm only about 20 minutes before impact. Located more than 15 million kilometres from Earth, approximately ten times further away than L1, the proposed Shield mission would be able to give an alert of his storm around two hours and a half before impact, which would allow critical infrastructure operators to efficiently prepare and minimise geomagnetic storm impacts.<\/p>\n \tAbout solar storms<\/p>\n
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