More northern lights fill Alberta sky, aurora visible in almost all of Canada

The sun is approaching the peak of an 11-year cycle of solar activity, leading to more frequent aurora borealis linked to unsettled space weather

For the second time in a week, unsettled space weather led to a dazzling display of aurora in the sky over Alberta — when weather closer to the ground didn’t get in the way.

Severe G4 geomagnetic storm conditions were reported around the planet Thursday, caused by the latest in a number of coronal mass ejections from the sun in the last few months.

Storms resulting from these streams of solar particles cause disturbances in the Earth’s geomagnetic field, potentially affecting such technology as satellite communication, global positioning systems, certain types of radio transmissions and power grids, said the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in a statement issued Thursday evening.