A Secret Island in a Dark Hole Brings a Big Storm & More | Space Weather Spotlight 16 September 2025

This week our Sun kicks things into high gear starting with a surprisingly strong period of storming from some fast solar wind. The magic ingredient was a magnetic island growing inside the coronal hole generating the wind, which led to huge aurora shows deep into mid-latitudes at Earth. Although the fast wind is still ongoing, the peak of the storm has passed and we should return to calm conditions on Earth’s nightside in the next day or so. That being said, new regions are growing fast on the Sun’s east limb and that means big flares and radio blackouts are expected to return later in the week on earth’s dayside. Noise on the dayside radio bands will also start increasing over the next few days so amateur radio operators and GPS users should stay vigilant for more signal degradation and reception issues. Learn the details of what caused the strong G3-level storming, catch aurora highlights from recent storms, and find out how the new east limb activity will affect you.