Which means there’s more frequent sunspots and solar activity in general,” commented Krista Hammond, Space Weather Manager at the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC).
There will probably be more opportunities to see auroras in the UK in the next months, even if it is impossible to predict exactly what this implies for specific Earth-directed solar occurrences.
It is impossible to pinpoint the precise moment when the number of sunspots peaked until after it has occurred, even though we are now in the solar maximum period, which might continue for a year.
This entire “maximum phase” thing implies that space weather events, like the worst geomagnetic storm to hit Earth in 20 years back in the spring, are still possible.
The Met Office noted, “Earlier in October, a similar, albeit weaker, event reached Earth, providing aurora visibility as far south as parts of central and southern England and Wales.”
