But beneath the beauty lies a threat that few outside the insurance and power industries are equipped to appreciate. These vivid auroras are the visible signatures of geomagnetic storms – disturbances caused by solar flares and coronal mass ejections that fling charged particles toward Earth. And while they make for ethereal selfies, they also induce powerful electric currents in the planet’s magnetic field. Those currents can quietly fry transformers, knock out satellites, and, in a severe event, black out entire continents.