Thursday, March 19, 2026
Aurora Watch and GEOMAGNETIC WARNING March 19-22
Two CME arrivals are happening in the coming days. The first CME is associated with the M2.7 flare on 16-Mar which is expected to arrive at 19/1800UT +/ 12 hours (that's either early morning on the 20th or very late on the 19th in Australia).
The second CME is associated with another M2.7 flare on 18-Mar and is expected to arrive at 20/1700UT +/- 12 hours.
In addition, solar wind 27 day recurrent patterns suggest coronal hole wind streams are likely to increase the solar wind speed over 21-23 March.
Some recent storms occurred during daylight hours in Austral, but lets hope we are lucky with night arrivals as this time as conditions are good.
If storms eventuate, visible aurora may be seen in Tasmania and possibly southern parts of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia during local night hours.
The Moon is in crescent phase and will not interfere with seeing aurora in the evening and early morning. Keep an eye out and be patient, as the magnetic polarity of the wind fluctuates significantly and aurora may come and go.
Dark sky sites have the best chance of seeing anything, and always allow around 5 minutes for your eyes to become dark adapted.
As always look to the south for shifting red/green glows, mostly green at the moment.
Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky. https://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/index.html
Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/
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INCREASED GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY EXPECTED
FROM 19-23 MARCH 2026
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GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST
19 Mar: Initially G0, then G1-G2
20 Mar: G1-G2 (minor to moderate)
21 Mar: G1-G2 (minor to moderate)
22 Mar: G0-G1 (minor to moderate)
Labels: aurora
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