Night skies came aglow on Thursday with the shimmering palette of the northern lights, or the aurora borealis if you prefer.
Above rooftops in Brooklyn and along the shores of Maine, amid Scottish trees and between Russian monuments to artistry, human eyes looked up, surprised to spot colorful bands of chemistry dancing in the dark. Forecasts from space weather watchers in the United States suggested that the show could be seen as far south as Alabama. It may linger through Friday evening in states farther north, closer to their usual habitat, with some visibility expected from the lower Midwest to Oregon.
These lights started with giant explosions on the surface of the sun, known as coronal mass ejections, which send streams of energetic particles into space. When these particles cross Earth’s orbit, they create a disturbance in our planet’s magnetic field, known as a geomagnetic storm.
When the storm is strong enough, the light show that people call the northern lights or aurora borealis and that is usually most visible near the North Pole appears closer to the Equator than usual. The lights brighten the night’s dark depths with shades of neon greens, purples and pinks.
The sun’s activity ebbs and flows on an 11-year cycle, and right now, it is approaching a solar maximum. The solar outburst that caused Thursday night’s lights was a result of a coronal mass ejection on Tuesday night that reached Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday night, traveling at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour.
This space weather is monitored using telescopes in space and other instruments by experts at a center within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Space Weather Prediction Center classifies these storms on a “G” scale of 1 to 5, with G1 being minor and G5 being extreme. They classified the storm that caused Thursday’s lights as G4, or “severe.” The outburst that caused northern lights in May was listed as a G5.
The most extreme storms can cause widespread blackouts and damage to infrastructure on Earth. Satellites may also have trouble orienting themselves or sending or receiving information during these events.
On Thursday, the primary effect seemed to be painted skies.
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