A new episode of the Northern Lights is expected this week in France

If you missed the last episode of Northern Lights last May, you’ll have a new opportunity in the coming days. In fact, solar activity is far from over, as Alexei Glover, space weather coordinator at the European Space Agency (ESA), pointed out in May.

This weekend, a sunspot called AR3766 generated several solar flares, as astrophysicist Eric Lagadic reported on X. These flares could provide the opportunity to observe new aurorae in the coming days.

“for monitoring”

The weekend's ejections came from powerful flares near a sunspot about 17 times larger than Earth, pointing toward our planet, he explains. These spots appear when solar activity is very intense, which is what is happening now. A year ahead of schedule, the sun, which follows an 11-year cycle, reached its maximum. The signs have been visible for some time. For several months, numerous sunspots have appeared on the sun's surface, sometimes visible to the naked eye.

Spot AR3664, responsible for two magical nights of aurora borealis as far as France, was followed by others, notably AR3766, which caused Saturday's eruption. From, “It looks like solar matter is on its way to Earth. Will we see the beautiful aurora borealis tomorrow or the day after?”“Asks Eric Lagadic. “for monitoring”“If not this time, more spots are likely to appear or reappear in the coming months,” he adds.

The northern lights seen in France and elsewhere around the world over the weekend of May 11-12 were caused by a solar storm, the most intense since one in October 2003, called Halloween Storm.