A solar flare from the sun has caused a radiation storm to hit Earth.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an alert about the activity, stating it would begin at 9:49am on May 13 UTC - that was 9:49pm on Monday night NZT.
"Type IV (radio) emissions occur in association with major eruptions on the Sun and are typically associated with strong coronal mass ejections and solar radiation storms," the notice said.
Otago University physics Professor Craig Rodger told Newshub there was a "weak solar radiation storm happening right now".
But he assured Kiwis they will be safe.
"It is a little hard to tell if they have peaked or not - my eye suggests it might have peaked already," he said.
"Solar Proton Events are not very common, but they have to be very really big to produce a significant risk. This is not that time."
Prof Rodger explained how when solar flares explode on the Sun, it heats up a chunk of the solar atmosphere - "so hot it glows in the X-rays".
"That is what we normally think of as a solar flare event. Sometimes the explosion and hot atmosphere releases very high energy protons - which spray out from the Sun into space. They are so high energy they are travelling quite close to the speed of light and arrive at Earth within about an hour of the explosion."
He added that the higher energy ones are faster and the lower energy protons take more hours to get to Earth.
"This makes the space around the Earth a higher radiation environment than it normally is. We call that a Solar Proton Event."
So, is there any risk to life and technology?
Prof Rodger explained that increased radiation was bad for satellites electronics - particularly chips and solar panels.
Pointing to the solar proton flux in the Earth environment here, he said when the red line is above the dashed threshold line at 10, a Solar Proton Event is declared.
"About 8pm yesterday a medium sized solar flare started (M6.6), which caused a new solar radiation storm. The storm is regarded as 'minor' right now, as the proton fluxes are not so high."
The unusual activity comes after Transpower turned several circuits off on Saturday, ahead of a geomagnetic storm hitting. Those circuits have since been restored after the precautionary action.
There were concerns at the time about the solar storm damaging satellites and power equipment.
However, people around the world got to enjoy colourful auroras caused by material being spat out of a huge spot on the sun.
The stunning, colourful lights, or Aurora Australis, it generated were clearly visible around Aotearoa.
