The northern lights lit up most of the United States on Thursday and may shine again Friday night.
The aurora borealis was visible as far south as Florida on Thursday. Photos show the sky lighted up in crimson and purple, even in well-lit locations such as New York City and Chicago.
The severe geomagnetic storm that caused such a show has passed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but certain portions of the United States may see the northern lights again tonight. Here’s what you should know.
Where will the Northern Lights be seen tonight?
The Northern Lights will be visible in regions of the northern United States, according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center’s aurora prediction. The aurora will be visible throughout most of Canada and Alaska, but the northern lights may be viewed as far as 620 miles away if circumstances are favorable, according to NOAA.
Parts of Idaho, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin may view the lights Friday night. On the East Coast, the aurora may be visible in northern New York and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. The northern lights may also be visible in Maine.
When it gets dark outdoors, the lights appear to the north. If you can’t see them with your naked eye, they can be viewable through a phone camera or another technology.
What time are the northern lights most visible?
According to NOAA, the northern lights are most visible just after sunset or before sunrise. The aurora is not visible during the daytime. A dark, clear sky with little artificial light gives the finest viewing conditions.
Why have the northern lights been so apparent recently?
CBS Boston reported that the sun has been extremely active in recent months, unleashing a series of coronal mass ejections from its surface. This has resulted in many visible aurora displays.
CBS Boston reported that the geomagnetic storm that caused Thursday’s magnificent sky is slowly receding. That implies there is a lower likelihood of viewing the aurora on Friday, but there may be more opportunities in the future.
Shawn Dahl, a
prediction coordinator with the Space Weather Prediction Center, told CBS Boston that the northern lights have been particularly powerful recently due to the sun’s position in its 11-year solar cycle. Dahl stated, “We are in the midst of a solar maximum.”
“What that means is the sun is now this twisted-up mass of strong magnetic fields, and some of these are so localized and intense they reveal themselves as these sunspot groups,” Dahl told me. “That’s the source of a bunch of the space weather storms that we’re looking for and predicting.”
What produces the Northern Lights?
The northern lights are created by interactions between the sun’s solar winds and the Earth’s magnetic field, according to NOAA. These two phenomena cause geomagnetic storms and higher geomagnetic activity.
The stronger the geomagnetic activity, the more likely you are to observe the aurora. According to NOAA, increased geomagnetic activity implies that the aurora will become brighter, more active, and visible farther from the planet’s poles.
According to NOAA, even mild solar wind causes the aurora; therefore, a faint aurora is generally visible from anywhere on Earth. The greatest areas to witness lesser auroras are near the planet’s poles, such as Greenland or southern Argentina. The northern lights refer to the aurora that appears around the North Pole. The identical phenomenon near the South Pole is known as the Southern Lights.
