​Our planet's magnetic shield is again under stress today with brief G3 Strong geomagnetic storm levels reached around 09:00 UTC. The storms began on September 7 with positive polarity coronal hole reaching geoeffective position and an impact of plasma filament eruptions from September 4th and 5th. Aurora images we've seen over the last 4 days are astounding, be sure to check out some of them at the end of this article. 

Geomagnetic K-index of 5 (G1 Minor geomagnetic storm) threshold was first reached at 15:00 UTC on September 7. K-index of 6 (G2 Moderate) threshold was reached at 16:25 UTC that day.

With changing intensity, the storming continued until September 10, when K-index sharply dropped, and intensified again to 7 (G3 Strong) at 08:59 UTC on September 11. 

By 09:36 UTC today, this brief period of G3 Strong storm was over. However, enhanced geomagnetic activity is not over yet and we might experience more isolated periods of moderate to strong storming over the next couple of days.

A rare celestial event is scheduled for September 28, 2015 (UTC) - a total lunar eclipse and the closest supermoon of the year. 

This full Moon is also known as the Harvest Moon, and Blood Moon, because it ends the current lunar tetrad - series of 4 consecutive total eclipses occurring at approximately six month intervals. 

The total lunar eclipse of September 28, 2015 is preceded two weeks earlier by a partial solar eclipse on September 13 and will be visible from the eastern Pacific, North and South America, Europe, Africa and western Asia.

According to NASA's eclipse specialist Fred Espenak, the Moon will be totally eclipsed (totality) for 1 hour and 11 minutes, but the instant of greatest eclipse takes place at 02:47 UTC.

In the US, this is 22:47 EDT, 21:47 CDT, 19:47 PDT on September 27. In Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia: 03:47 BST, 04:47 CET, 05:47 AST, 09:47 ICT, 12:47 AEST... on September 28.

Geomagnetic storm reaching G2-Moderate levels has been observed on August 27, 2015, mostly due to effects of August 22 CME that arrived late on August 25. 

This activity is expected to slightly wane throughout the day, but active levels are again expected later in the day (UTC) and into August 28 as the co-rotating interaction region (CIR) and coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) interact with the Earth's magnetic field.

SWPC forecasters expect conditions to be unsettled on August 29 due to continued effects from the CH HSS.

Meanwhile, Region 2403, the source of 9 M-class solar flares since August 21, will soon begin its farside rotation. However, M-class flares (R1-R2, Minor-Moderate) from this region are still likely on August 27 and 28, and there is slight chance for X-class (R3, strong or greater) solar flares.