A pair of flares visible in the sun on Tuesday (May 9) may display the northern lights for the northern and central United States tonight.
Late Tuesday, a satellite known as the Solar and Heliosphere Observatory, or SOHO, detected a large coronal mass ejection (CME) likely caused by the twin flare explosions that afternoon. The associated subatomic material appears to be heading straight for Earth, and as a result, the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has I took out my geomagnetic storm watch (Opens in a new tab) for a possible G3 event today (May 11).
Such a geomagnetic storm would allow the aurora to be seen as far south as the Oregon border, northern California, Denver, Colorado, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Related: Northern lights (aurora borealis): what they are and how to see them
For most of the past week, the Sun has been behaving very disturbingly. Since May 5, a sunspot cataloged as AR3296 has slowly crossed the solar disk and in the process has shot at least nine magnetically charged “M” class solar flares toward Earth. These beacons frequently cause interruption or even outage of shortwave radio communications around the world. Compass needles swing back and forth, while utility companies brace for surges in current that might even cut their power lines.
But on Tuesday (9/5), in the span of less than two hours, two significant solar flares erupted from sunspot AR3296. Huge streams of subatomic particles burst out of this solar disturbance at an incredible speed of 2.2 million miles per hour (1.3 million km/h). When these particles encounter Earth’s magnetic field, some of them can be accelerated and directed toward the region around the North and South Poles.
Magnetic Storm Watch is now in effect
The forecast of space weather events, like terrestrial weather, is subject to uncertainty. Expected magnetic storms may be stronger or weaker than expected. The time of his arrival is also very uncertain; Some computer models predict this will happen as early as this morning, but as of this writing, we are still waiting for the subatomic material released from Tuesday’s double flare event to reach Earth.
Projections show that this electrified matter will reach Earth around Thursday afternoon (May 11), eventually colliding with molecular oxygen and nitrogen, as well as atoms of rarefied gases in the upper atmosphere. These atoms are temporarily stripped of some of their electrons by collision or near-collision. Atoms absorb energy in the process. In a millionth of a second, the atom regains its lost electron and re-emit this energy in the form of light of a different color in the same physical process as that emitted by light from a neon sign.
We call this display in the night sky the aurora borealis, more commonly known as the northern lights.
When and where to look
Usually confined to Alaska, northern Canada, and Iceland, the Northern Lights appear in various forms up to 200 or more nights each year. But sometimes when really intense turbulence erupts in the sun, the viewport for viewing the light can be pushed further south.
Skywatchers hoping to catch a glimpse of the northern lights should make a concerted effort to go to a location away from bright city lights and check the northern sky as soon as it gets dark enough and then carry out periodic periodic sky checks. Aurora activity can be inactive, then suddenly erupt at any time. The most common shape appears low on the northern horizon and is called a homogeneous arc. If the activity increases, the arc may appear to pulsate as a ray of light appears and shoots up into the sky. Others are specks, specks of light, or flames.
As for colors, green and white are the most common, although blue and red auroras are also observed.
Smoke can obstruct vision
One drawback that can seriously hinder viewers in the Northern and Northeastern United States is the presence of smoke in the air from wildfire activity in western Canada. Upper winds blow this smoke east-southeast, creating a light haze in the sky. This mist makes sunrises and sunsets crimson, but also dims or even completely dims, dim stargazing at night.
To get the best view of the aurora borealis, the sky must be clear and transparent. But the smoky skies currently affecting much of southern Canada and the northern United States could muffle or obscure the potential display of the Northern Lights tonight.
Joe Rao is a teacher and visiting lecturer in New York Planetarium Hayden (Opens in a new tab). He wrote about astronomy for Journal of Natural History (Opens in a new tab)That Farmer’s Almanac (Opens in a new tab) and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @menciak (Opens in a new tab) and so on Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
2023-05-11 23:02:55
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