UPDATED 9/27: The UAF Geophysical Institutes says auroral activity will be active again Tuesday night. "Weather permitting, active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Anchorage and Juneau, and visible low on the horizon from King Salmon and Prince Rupert."

(Original story) A massive solar flare walloped the Earth’s magnetic field with a glancing blow early Monday morning, triggering an “extreme” aurora over Alaska during the day and ground currents in Norway.

Although pesky daylight will likely drown the dazzle for most viewers, don’t despair.  The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has forecast that the aurora should remain “active” on Monday and Tuesday nights, with displays potentially visible overhead as far south as Anchorage.

The flare erupted from Sunspot 1302 — a 60,000-mile-long region that NASA calls “behemoth” — at 1:40 a.m. ADT Saturday. The blast wave of charged particles caroomed into the magnetic field about 4:15 a.m. on Monday.

As the week goes on, keep those camera lenses polished: the show may not end Tuesday.

“Having already unleashed two X-flares since Sept. 22nd, sunspot AR1302 appears ready for more,” said  Spaceweather.com in this dispatch.

So far, the sunspot has been aimed, so to speak, away from the Earth. But it should slowly draw a bead on the home planet.

“None of the blasts have been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the days ahead,” NASA added here.  “AR1302 is growing and shows no immediate signs of quieting down.”

Sunspots are immense magnetic disturbances in the roiling photosphere of the Sun, visible to us as dark splotches that are cooler than the surrounding surface. Each of AR 1302’s spots are larger in diameter than the Earth itself, NASA says here.

“The sunspot's magnetic field is currently crackling with sub-X-class flares that could grow into larger eruptions as the sunspot continues to turn toward Earth.”

Contact Doug O'Harra at doug(at)alaskadispatch.com