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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

'Cannibal CME' delivered impressive northern lights show last night

Another chance for auroras after dark Thursday night

Aurora from NOAA weather satellites
Aurora from NOAA weather satellites. Note the city lights of Chicago and the Twin Cities in the center part of this image below the aurora.
NOAA

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It was an impressive show over Minnesota last night if you were in a good spot to see the northern lights.

Many skywatchers tweeted out impressive aurora photos over Minnesota.

Thursday morning’s aurora show danced over Minnesota with multiple colors. Green curtains and red patches lit up the moonless sky in open areas away from city lights. Check out this image from Princeton north of the Twin Cities.

Check out this video from Manitoba around 1:22 into the video.

People as far south as California got in on the action.

The strong geomagnetic storm reached G3 levels early Thursday according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

G1-G3 (MINOR-STRONG) GEOMAGNETIC STORM CONDITIONS CONTINUE

published: Thursday, November 04, 2021 05:13 UTC

CME passage continues and geomagnetic storm levels at or above G1 (Minor) storm levels are expected to persist into the 04 November, 2021, UTC-day. Current warnings include: G1-G2 (Minor-Moderate) storm levels through 04/1500 UTC (4 Nov/11:00am EDT) and a G3 (Strong) storm until 04/0900 UTC (4 Nov/05:00am EDT). G1 storm levels continue to be met and solar wind conditions remain elevated and enhanced, maintaining the potential for additional periods of G2-G3 level storms. 

Cannibal CME

Thursdays aurora storm was triggered by a so-called “cannibal CME.” These events occur when a faster-moving CME overtakes a slower wave in from of it. The two tangled magnetic fields hit earth’s magnetosphere last night.

Cannibal CME
Cannibal CME.
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

Here’s more on cannibal CMEs from spaceweather.com.

Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from yesterday's Cannibal CME impact. Currently, geomagnetic storm conditions are flickering between G1 (minor) and G2 (moderately strong). If these conditions persist, observers in Scandinavia, Iceland, Canada, and maybe even northern-tier US states can expect to see auroras after nightfall on Nov. 4th. 

This CME is a cannibal because it ate others of its own kind. Cannibal CMEs are fast coronal mass ejections that sweep up slower CMEs in front of them. The mish-mash contains tangled magnetic fields and compressed plasmas that can do a good job sparking geomagnetic storms.

The slower CMEs, in this case, were hurled into space on Nov. 1st and 2nd by departing sunspot AR2887. The cannibal caught up with them almost immediately after leaving the sun. This NOAA computer model shows what happened:

Last night may have been the best of show for this round of northern lights. But there is still the potential for more overnight into early Friday morning so you may want to try again if you missed it last night.

You can see more aurora images here.