💚💜💙⭐ Quick solar report and aurora alert as of 22:30 BST, 12th June 2026.
💚 Potential for aurora tonight or tomorrow
💚 G1-G2 Geomagnetic Storm Watches in place for 12th-14th of June
Hi everyone, another quick summary. We are currently within the Coronal Hole High Speed Stream from coronal hole 63 and there is potential for a glancing blow from a C6.3 solar flare which released a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on the 11th of June.
There has also been other filament activity which has a small chance of arriving here at Earth too.
This means there may be potential for aurora over tonight and tomorrow night if everything falls into place.
HIGH SPEED STREAM
We have been in a High Speed Stream (HSS) from Coronal Hole 63 since the 11th of June. This HSS has already led to G1 geomagnetic storm levels of aurora, which in turn has led to some nice displays for those across the pond in America and Down Under in Australia and New Zealand.
CME PREDICTIONS
NASA, NOAA and Reading University have released models predicting the potential arrival of the C6.3 solar flare CME. All are predicting a glancing blow at best with most of the CME material heading away from Earth. Predictions suggest arrival to be anywhere from early morning to midday on the 13th of June. As always these are just predictions and we can’t know anything for certain until we start to see signs of arrival at satellite level. These predictions carry around a +/- 7 hour level of uncertainty meaning we could see things arrive sooner or later than predicted.
G1-G2 GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCHES IN PLACE
Due to the predicted incoming solar wind from Coronal hole 63 and the C6.3 solar flare CME, NOAA has put G1-G2 geomagnetic storm watches are still in place for the 12th-14th of June.
CURRENT STATS
Solar wind speeds are at elevated levels fluctuating around an average of 540 km/s.
The density of the solar wind has been hanging around at normal levels of around 2 p/ccm but has recently seen a jump up to levels of between 4-6 p/ccm.
The strength of the IMF (Bt) has been around 4 nT for most of the day but has recently seen a little rise to 6nT that coincided with the density rise.
Currently the polarity of the IMF (Bz) has been predominantly South, hopefully this stays that way allowing the aurora to build in strength.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
As always, it is worth keeping in mind that even though we have been forecast G1-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 (Friday the 12th), Southern UK will be best. There is a lot of cloud and rain predicted to be moving its way across the UK with a band of clear skies running from Wales to Norfolk.
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 isn’t a problem at this moment in time as the Moon is nearing its new phase and wont be rising until just before sunrise.
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, 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.
SUMMARY
To sum up, if everything falls into place we could see a little aurora activity that might be able to cut through the perpetual twilight. Fingers crossed! 🤞
It is always worth remembering predictions are never certain and we can't know anything for sure until we start to see something showing on the satellites. Depending on how fast the solar wind is travelling, if we do see anything arriving at satellite level this will give us roughly around half an hour to an hour’s notice.
The main message again just like last time is we have the potential for aurora, 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.
FOLLOW OUR SOCIALS FOR UPDATES
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. ✨️