Before dawn on February 16, a NASA satellite instrument caught a stunning northern lights display stretching across the North Atlantic and into eastern Canada. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the Suomi NPP satellite recorded the glow as it lit up the sky over the Denmark Strait and Iceland around 04:45 UTC (4:45 a.m. local time in Reykjavík). A little later, around 06:30 UTC (1:30 a.m. local time in Montreal), the same system observed the aurora shimmering above parts of Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
VIIRS is designed to observe Earth in multiple wavelengths—from visible green light to near-infrared. By combining these wavelength observations with specialized filtering techniques, scientists can detect faint atmospheric signals, including auroras, even when conditions make them difficult to see from the ground. The satellite imagery may appear in grayscale, but the real spectacle is anything but monochrome. Aurora borealis displays often glow in vivid shades, most commonly green, while stronger activity can bring out purples and other hues.
This particular event was triggered by a geomagnetic storm, the kind of space weather that occurs when energy from the Sun disrupts Earth’s magnetic field. It began as a G1 storm, which is considered a minor geomagnetic storm. Even at this lower level, geomagnetic activity can energize Earth’s upper atmosphere enough to generate widespread northern lights. G1 storms can also cause mild impacts, such as small fluctuations in power grid operations and minor effects on satellite systems. In this case, the storm later intensified into a G2 geomagnetic storm, a moderate category that can increase both aurora visibility and the chance of technical disruptions.
Scientists are especially interested in events like this because auroras are more than just beautiful—they’re visible evidence of complex electrical processes happening high above Earth. With the newly launched GNEISS (Geophysical Non-Equilibrium Ionospheric System Science) mission, NASA aims to learn more about the ionosphere and the electrical environment that helps create auroras, improving our understanding of space weather and how it can affect the technology people rely on every day.
