AURORA WATCH: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Sept. 12th and 13th. That's when a coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of geomagnetic activity during the next 24 hours.

PARTING OF THE RED SEA: The source of the incoming CME is a magnetic filament on the sun, which erupted during the late hours of Sept. 10th. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast.

Shortly after the filament erupted, the plasma sea underneath it seemed to open a fiery-red fissure. This is a common manifestation of explosions on the sun. In the aftermath of a flare, magnetic loops form over the blast site. Hot plasma sliding down the sides of these loops hits the stellar surface, creating a light show that resembles a "parting of the red sea."

No fewer than three spacecraft (STEREO-A, STEREO--B, and SOHO) observed a coronal mass ejection (CME) emerging from the blast site: SOHO movie. An analysis of the CME from multiple points of view suggests that a portion of its southern flank was Earth-directed. People in Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Greenland and Scandinavia could see Northern Lights when the cloud arrives on Sept 12th or 13th.

Watch the eruption on the surface of the sun and read the source HERE.

Watch the explosion recorded by SOHO, a sun orbiting spacecraft HERE.