NOAA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NOAA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Science & Discovery
Quiet Sun, Restless Field: Inside NOAA's Latest Space Weather Snapshot
Weeks after an X-class flare sparked aurora across 30 US states, NOAA's July 15 snapshot shows 36 tame sunspots, a mild C3 flare, and just quiet-to-minor storm odds — a reminder that solar weather swings fast.
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Stargazing
Sunspot AR4485 Fires an M1.2 Flare as CMEs Set Up a G1-G2 Storm Watch Through Midweek
Departing sunspot AR4485 unleashed an M1.2 flare and a radio blackout before rotating off the disk, while a trailing coronal mass ejection could nudge Earth's geomagnetic field to G1 storm levels late this week.
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Stargazing
Sunspot AR4482 Unleashes M-Class Flares, Raising Aurora Odds Into the Weekend
Sunspot AR4482 fired off an M4.0 flare and a major filament eruption on July 7, and with a coronal-hole wind stream and CME now converging on Earth, forecasters give mid-to-high latitudes a real shot at aurora through the weekend.
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Stargazing
A Beta-Gamma-Delta Sunspot Keeps Firing: Radio Blackout Risk Runs Through the Weekend
Active region AR4482, a magnetically tangled beta-gamma-delta sunspot, has been lobbing M-class flares at Earth since July 8, and NOAA gives it decent odds of another one through July 11 — with a side of aurora from an incoming solar wind stream.
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Stargazing
X1.3 Flare and Surprise G3 Storm Send Aurora Across 30 US States for July 4th Weekend
A CME-driven G3 storm outperformed its own forecast to paint aurora across 30-plus US states on July 4, then a fresh X1.3 flare from newly numbered AR4482 kept the sun's holiday fireworks going.
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NASA & Agencies
Congress Presses NASA and NOAA on Space Weather Readiness as Solar Cycle 25 Peaks
Lawmakers grilled NASA's and NOAA's top space weather officials on grid, GPS, and communications risks the same week an X1.1 flare and G3 storms lit up July 4th skies with aurora.
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Stargazing
Sun Unleashes Surprise G3 Storm on July 4th, Pushing Auroras Into Utah and Nevada
A CME from a June 30 X1.1 flare overperformed its forecast, hitting G3 (Strong) and dragging the aurora as far south as Utah, Colorado and Nevada on Independence Day.
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Science & Discovery
Sunspot AR4479 Fires an X1 Flare and Ten M-Flares, and NOAA Posts a G2 Watch for the Fourth of July Weekend
Active Region 4479 threw an X1.1 flare and roughly ten M-class flares in a single day, launching a staggered train of Earth-directed CMEs. NOAA issued G1-G2 storm watches for July 3-4, opening a holiday-weekend aurora window that could reach the northern-tier United States.
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Stargazing
Aurora Alert: An X1.1 Flare and Back-to-Back CMEs Open a June 30-July 1 Storm Window
NOAA flagged G1-G2 storm conditions for June 30 into July 1 as a June 26 CME arrived and a slower June 27 CME chased behind, while AR4479 fired an X1.1 flare at 20:50 UTC - putting aurora within reach of northern-tier U.S. skies.
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Stargazing
A June 26 CME Is Inbound: NOAA Posts a Storm Watch and the Aurora Could Reach the Northern U.S.
A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on June 26 is forecast to reach Earth around June 30, and NOAA has issued a geomagnetic storm watch — with aurora possibly visible as far south as Seattle and Minneapolis.
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Stargazing
A Surprise G1 Geomagnetic Storm Lit Up June 25 as a New Sunspot Woke Up
A G1 geomagnetic storm crossed the threshold at 4:43 UTC on June 25, 2026, driven by coronal-hole solar wind and a possible glancing CME, as new sunspot region AR4478 fired most of the day's 16 C-class flares.
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Science & Discovery
The Sun is at its most active in two decades. What solar maximum actually means.
Solar Cycle 25 has been more active than forecasters predicted, delivering some of the strongest geomagnetic storms in years and producing aurora visible at unusually low latitudes. What solar maximum means for technology, satellites, and power grids — and how we prepare — is more relevant now than it has been in a generation.
