CME Causes Colorful Aurora

NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) detected the leading edge of the coronal mass ejection (CME) that had erupted from the sun late at night on Sep. 27. The input of energy and solar material into Earth's magnetic environment, the magnetosphere, caused what's called a geomagnetic storm – that is, compression and variation in the magnetosphere.

This storm was rated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) as a G3 storm, on a scale from G1 to G5. Such storms are considered medium strength. This storm produced aurora as far south as Maryland and Ohio in the U.S. Updates will be provided, if needed.From Nasa and Forbezo