From dusk till dawn with all-sky camera in Italy observing exceptional auroral activity in 4K

Thanks to Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project, we have an exceptional video showcasing auroral activity from May 10 and 11, 2024, during a G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storm.

The video captures the entire night, from sunset to dawn, and the whole sky, using an all-sky camera at the Virtual Telescope Project facility in Manciano, Italy (lat.: +42.5 deg.), under some of the darkest skies in the Italian peninsula.

Aurora sightings were widespread in both hemispheres on May 11, reaching as far south as Florida, U.S., and the Mediterranean Sea in Europe. One of the first remarkable images came from New Zealand and Tasmania, described as ‘absolutely biblical.’

The last time Earth had a G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storm was in October 2003 — dubbed the Halloween Storms of 2003. These storms resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa. Surprisingly, they occurred 2 to 3 years after solar maximum.

The storms included the largest solar flare ever recorded by the GOES system, which was initially estimated as X28 but later modeled as strong as X45 due to the saturation of the GOES detectors.

The solar activity caused a temporary failure of the SOHO satellite and damaged the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). Several other spacecraft experienced issues or downtime, with some intentionally placed in safe mode to protect sensitive equipment.

This time, NOAA reported some minor power grid irregularities and impacts on high-frequency communications and GPS, while Elon Musk reported his Starlink satellites are ‘under a lot of pressure but holding up so far.’

Here are some more visuals of the aurora show on May 11. It was truly spectacular and captured the attention of people around the world.

Featured image credit: Virtual Telescope Project (stillshot)