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Abstract This research leverages data from the Day/Night Band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer (VIIRS) instrument onboard the Suomi National Polar‐orbiting Partnership (S‐NPP) satellite. We demonstrate the value of mining the VIIRS DNB for aurora and describe our use of unsupervised machine learning to create a binary mask for aurora occurrence. This mask can be used to flag aurora‐contaminated observations for NASA's nighttime lights products for Earth science applications. The identification of auroral regions can also be used for Space Weather applications, for example, for comparison with aurora forecast model and with other satellite‐ or ground‐based aurora observations. The DNB is a broadband channel that is sensitive to wavelengths from 500 to 900 nm, which covers most of the visible light spectrum, and as the name implies, captures light even at night with a sensitivity at the nanowatt level. This band is suitable for aurora observations since the light emitted by the aurora tends to be dominated by emissions from atomic oxygen, resulting in a greenish glow at a wavelength of 557.7 nm, especially at an altitude of 110 km. This study compares the global nighttime derived aurora regions for 17 and 18 March with the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's (SWPC) probability product for the St. Patrick's Day geomagnetic storm in 2015. VIIRS sensors are slated to be added to the next generation of polar‐orbiting operational satellites. Our novel automated approach to aurora identification opens up an efficient way to leverage this unique data source.

New evidence based on Cassini magnetic field and plasma data has revealed that the discovery of Titan outside Saturn’s magnetosphere during the T96 flyby on 2013 December 1 was the result of the impact of two consecutive interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) that left the Sun in 2013 early November and interacted with the moon and the planet. We study the dynamic evolution of Saturn's magnetopause and bow shock, which evidences a magnetospheric compression from late November 28 to December 4 (at least), under prevailing solar wind dynamic pressures of 0.16–0.3 nPa. During this interval, transient disturbances associated with the two ICMEs are observed, allowing for the identification of their magnetic structures. By analyzing the magnetic field direction, and the pressure balance in Titan’s induced magnetosphere, we show that Cassini finds Saturn’s moon embedded in the second ICME after being swept by its interplanetary shock and amid a shower of solar energetic particles that may have caused dramatic changes in the moon’s lower ionosphere. Analyzing a list of Saturn's bow shock crossings during 2004–2016, we find that the magnetospheric compression needed for Titan to be in the supersonic solar wind can be generally associated with the presence of an ICME or a corotating interaction region. This leads to the conclusion that Titan would rarely face the pristine solar wind, but would rather interact with transient solar structures under extreme space weather conditions.