Forecasting solar storms is especially difficult right now, even as the sun is getting more active. CMEs fling charged, super-hot plasma into space, and sometimes — like in the case of this CME — that plasma strikes Earth. On the bright side, these solar storms also make stunning displays of the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, visible in the middle of the US. On a different day, all of these effects combined could have created a very violent solar storm. In the worst-case scenario, which is very rare, all the conditions align to send a very fast and very powerful solar storm to Earth.

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Persons: oozing, Keith Strong, Lockheed Martin, Dean Pesnell, Rune Stoltz Bertinussen, Matt Owens, Bryan Brasher, Daniel Verscharen, Owens Organizations: Service, Lockheed, NASA, Dynamics, Prediction, National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, Reuters, CME, University of Reading, University College London, NASA Solar Dynamics Locations: Wall, Silicon, Tromso, Norway, Montana , Missouri, Virginia