Aurora chasers have a reason to be thankful this Thursday, as a solar storm is forecast to reach Earth and produce some colorful northern lights in the northern hemisphere.
The dazzling phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, should be visible on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday in parts of the northern United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The celestial display of greenish and reddish hues would come courtesy of a coronal mass ejection hurtling toward Earth, which prompted NOAA’s pace Weather Prediction Center to issue a geomagnetic storm watch for both Thursday and Friday.
The solar storm may pose a minimal threat to things like satellites, GPS signals and power grids, but it may also provide some additional Thanksgiving entertainment when football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade have long ended. Because of the way the solar particles interact with Earth’s magnetosphere, the powerful eruption should make the vibrant northern lights visible to a wider swath of the northern hemisphere than usual.
Here’s what to know about the northern lights and how to potentially see them on Thanksgiving night in the United States.
Northern lights:Amid solar maximum, auroras should be more visible across U.S.
NOAA issues Thanksgiving week geomagnetic storm watch
NOAA has been tracking a coronal mass ejection since Sunday that exploded from the sun on a trajectory that should reach Earth later this week.
Forecasters use a five-level scale to measure geometric storms, which are caused when coronal mass ejections release solar particles and electromagnetic radiation toward our planet. The solar storm is relatively small, with NOAA measuring it at a minor G1 intensity Thursday and a moderate G2 intensity on Friday.
Of course, the forecasted storm won’t quite have the oomph of the G4-level whopper that came along Oct. 10, but it should still unveil the auroras across the northern hemisphere.
Where will the auroras be visible?
The auroras are best seen around the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres in places like Europe, Asia and North America. In the U.S., Alaska is well known to have the best viewing opportunities for the northern lights.
But Thursday’s incoming solar storm should make the auroras visible further from the poles. The geomagnetic activity has a Kp index of 5, meaning the northern lights will also be brighter, according to NOAA.
“If you are in the right place, these aurora can be quite pleasing to look at,” the agency says.
In the U.S., the auroras may become visible in some northern and upper Midwest states from New York to Idaho, according to SWPC’s experimental Aurora viewline. The visibility for viewing will also depend on local weather conditions and city lights.
The northern lights may also be visible low on the horizon in several states, according to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute website, which tracks the phenomenon.
Those include:
- Boise, Idaho;
- Cheyenne, Wyoming;
- Lincoln, Nebraska;
- Indianapolis;
- Annapolis, Maryland;
When is the best time to see the northern lights?
The solar storms send particles flowing from the sun that get caught up in Earth’s magnetic field, causing colorful auroras to form as they interact with molecules of atmospheric gases. In the months ahead, the resulting glowing auroras may be quite a sight to see – if you look up at the right time.
Even though conditions are prime for more impending aurora shows, experts have long struggled to accurately forecast exactly when and where the phenomenon will ever occur. Even the best predictions can only accurately be made a few days or even hours in advance.
But as a rule of thumb, ff the weather is clear, the best aurora is usually visible within an hour or two of midnight, according to NOAA. And if it looks like the northern lights will flare up near you, it’s advised to get away from cities and travel to dark locations free from light pollution.
The agency also maintains an aurora dashboard that should help skygazers track the phenomenon.
What causes the northern lights
The auroras are a natural light display in Earth’s sky that are famously best seen in high-latitude regions of the northern and southern hemispheres.
The phenomenon is caused when electrically charged particles from space enter Earth’s atmosphere and collide with molecules and gasses like oxygen and nitrogen, causing the atmospheric particles to gain energy. To return to their normal state, the particles release that energy in the form of light, according to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
As auroras form, Earth’s magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles through a process that produces a stunning display of rays, spirals and flickers that have fascinated humans for millennia. Whether hues of green, red, blue and even pink dance about in the sky is due to the altitude in which the collisions occur, as well as the composition and density of the atmosphere at the time.
Why northern lights activity is increasing
Now that the sun is at the height of its 11-year cycle, the increase in solar activity has more frequently fueled space weather that produces the right conditions for northern lights to flourish.
Regions of intense magnetic activity known as sunspots are proliferating on the solar surface and are capable of releasing intense bursts of radiation resulting in solar flares that can hurtle toward Earth at the speed of light, according to NOAA. Some of these flares can be accompanied by coronal mass ejections, or clouds of plasma and charged particles, that emerge from the sun’s outermost atmosphere, the corona.
These ejections can collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, the barrier protecting humanity from the harshest impacts of space weather, to produce geomagnetic storms that unleash spectacular views of the northern lights in parts of the country where auroras are not often visible.
What’s more, because NASA anticipates the solar maximum to continue into 2025, aurora chasers should have plenty more opportunities to catch the northern lights.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
