WEEKEND AURORAS? A solar wind stream is expected to brush against Earth's magnetic field on April 6-7, possibly causing geomagnetic disturbances around the poles. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras beaming through the waxing twilight of northern spring. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

INCOMING ACTIVE REGION: An active region on the farside of the sun is about to rotate onto the Earthside of the sun. It announced itself on April 5th around 0700 UT with a C2-class solar flare that hurled material over the sun's eastern limb. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme UV glow of the blast:

Quickly following that eruption came another even stronger one: An M2-class flare (image) at 1750 UT.