Aurora seen over Norway

Strong geomagnetic storms, caused by solar flares, can lead to a temporary enhancement of high-energy particles in the polar regions, due to protons being injected into the magnetosphere and becoming trapped.

The increase of high-energy protons leads to a type of aurora known as a ‘proton aurora’, which appears as a more diffuse type of light or glow – rather than the ‘ripples’ associated with electron aurora. Proton aurora often occur at the same or slightly different altitudes compared to electron auroras. There were various sightings coinciding with the November 2025 solar event measured by Swarm.

Read full story: Swarm detects rare proton spike during solar storm