AURORA ALERT | 07/06/2026 @ 12:00 BST
💚 Potential for aurora at some time over the next few nights!
💚Possibility of G3-G2 geomagnetic storm 8th-9th June due to potential impact from M1.8 Solar Flare CME
💚Potential for further activity due to approaching coronal hole and multiple sunspot regions
Hi everyone, unfortunately things didn’t end up how we hoped with the last lot of CME activity, HOWEVER, there has been some exciting activity which has the possibility of making up for the disappointment of the last few nights.
If you want more information please read on…
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
At around 15:00 BST on the 6th of June an eruptive M1.8 class solar flare was observed exploding from sunspot region AR 4461 resulting in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) with a possible Earth-bound component. Although most of the material from this CME was seen to be heading of the South-East limb of the Sun, predictions point to a fair amount of material arriving here at Earth.
PREDICTED ARRIVAL
NASA and NOAA models are predicting arrival of the incoming solar wind from this CME to arrive here at some time between the early morning and midday of the 8th of June.
G3-G2 GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCHES IN PLACE
Due to the incoming CME NOAA has put a G3 (Strong) geomagnetic storm watch in place for the 8th and a G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch 9th of June.
POTENTIAL FOR AURORA IN THE NEAR FUTURE
All of this means we have the potential to see some nice auroral activity over the next few nights that might be able to cut through the perpetual twilight here at mid-northern latitudes IF everything falls into place! Let's keep our fingers crossed! 🤞
OTHER SOLAR ACTIVITY
As a side note, there are also currently a lot of sunspot regions on the Earth facing side of the Sun and a fairly large centrally located coronal hole that is rotating around into an Earth directed position. This solar activity could lead to further aurora activity in the near future too! We'll keep you updated if and when there are any developments.
THE MAIN MESSAGE
The main message just like last time is we have the potential for aurora over the next few nights, however things need to line up just right and DON'T EXPECT ANYTHING FOR CERTAIN!
In the meantime charge your camera batteries and make plans for where you might go if we see any activity.
CURRENT STATS
12:00 BST – at the moment, nothing particularly noteworthy with regards to the stats.
Since the M1.8 flare on the 6th, high energy protons levels have been slightly increased with a very minor radiation storm still taking place, which we didn’t see from the last CME activity.
Solar wind speeds are at moderately elevated levels fluctuating around an average of 550 km/s.
Apart from this, things are pretty normal. We will keep an eye on things as we get closer to nightfall and the predicted arrival times and make sure to keep you all updated.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
As always, it is worth keeping in mind that even though we have been forecast G3-G2 geomagnetic storms, things sometimes end up different to the forecasts.
The particles from the solar wind can fizzle out, they can miss us all together, they can arrive during our hours of daylight, and they can arrive with the wrong polarity and not interact with our magnetic field.
Just like the last lot of CMEs showed us, a lot of things have to fall into place just right to accumulate in an aurora display.
There is also the Earth weather and the Moon to consider as well, plus at this time of year any auroral activity must also be strong enough to cut through the endless twilight.
EARTH WEATHER
Looking at current weather forecasts it seems that tonight (Sunday the 7th) the weather is quite bad for pretty much all of the UK, with cloud covering everywhere and many places seeing quite a bit of rain.
Tomorrow (Monday the 8th) night, however is looking quite good with fairly clear skies for pretty much all of the UK.
If the weather forecast is correct, lets hope that the incoming CME arrives at the right time for Monday night.
However, as we all know, Earth weather forecasts are never 100% accurate and things can and do change, so it's worth heading out and checking your local skies in person.
LUNAR CONDITIONS
Fortunately the Moon will be less of a problem for us over the next few nights, due to the Moon rising later.
The Moon won’t be rising until roughly 01:25 BST on the 8th, 01:33 BST on the 9th, and 01:42 BST on the 10th.
This means that the Moon won’t be about during the time of our darkest skies, and rises when the skies start to become brighter due to the dawn twilight.
ENDLESS TWILIGHT
At this time of year, due to the Earth's tilt and the Northern Hemisphere being tilted towards the Sun, we are experiencing endless summer twilight — the skies never reach true darkness, which makes it harder to catch an aurora display.
All of this being said, if the aurora is strong enough it can outshine the Moon and twilight, just like the incredible display we experienced in June last year.
SOUTH IS BETTER?
Counter-intuitively to normal circumstances where being further North is best for aurora chasing due to being closer to the auroral oval, at this time of year those who are further South may actually have a better chance of catching aurora due to the Northern horizon being darker at lower latitudes and the duration of darker skies being longer.
WHAT TIME IS BEST?
As far as times to go hunting, if you do plan to head out over the next few nights, at mid UK latitudes your best chances of catching anything (weather permitting) will be roughly between midnight to 2am when the skies are at their darkest.
Further South in the UK your window of darker skies may be longer, for example if you live in Cornwall your window of Nautical Darkness is between 23:15-03:20 BST.
FOLLOW OUR SOCIALS FOR UPDATES
Hopefully things pan out a little better for us this time around and if everything falls into place we could be treated to some nice aurora at some point over the next few nights. Fingers crossed! 🤞
As always, we will be keeping an eye on the skies and satellite data and will keep you all updated with any developments.
Please follow our Facebook @astrodoguk for up-to-date and accurate aurora alerts — we always make sure to alert you if things are looking promising to give you the best chance possible of seeing and photographing the aurora yourselves. 😊💖
Wishing you good luck and clear skies. ✨️