These states can see the Northern Lights this weekend
The coming year offers plenty of opportunities to see the Northern Lights, thanks to the sun being in its solar maximum. One of those opportunities comes on the evenings of November 8 and 9, thanks to a solar flare launched from the sun earlier this week. It won’t lighten the sky like some of the aurorae we saw earlier this yearbut it should still be a good show for some people in the US.
For now the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes predictions that the Northern Lights will be visible in the northernmost states of the US. These include Washington, Idaho, Montana, both Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. People in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire may also be in luck. NOAA says the geomagnetic storm causing this sample of the Northern Lights is centered around a G1 or G2 level storm, which is on the lower end of the spectrum.
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This aurora borealis is the result of a coronal mass ejection NOAA detected on November 7. The solar flare that launched it was measured as an M3 class solar flare, which is on the fainter side. However, enough of it will hit Earth to push the Northern Lights a little further south than they normally would. Because the storm is expected to last several days, there is a chance that the Northern Lights will reach a little further south than predicted. So even if you’re a little outside of NOAA’s forecast area, it doesn’t hurt to take a look. You may even see a meteor from a meteor shower.
The M3-class flare came just one day after a much larger, more powerful X2.3-class flare detected on November 6. That outburst caused some radio frequency problems, but did not result in a more active aurora borealis. If that flame had hit Earth properly, it would have driven the Aurora Borealis much further south. The recent sighting of the Northern Lights lighting up half of the US came from an X1.8 class flare.
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The Northern Lights are caused by coronal mass ejections from the Sun interacting with Earth’s geomagnetic field. The interaction between the solar material and radiation with the Earth’s magnetic field causes the sky to light up beautifully. The more powerful and intense the coronal mass ejection is, the more intense the Northern Lights become. Because it extends into the northern US, it’s on the lower half of the scale, but it’s still more than you would normally see.
How do I see the Northern Lights?
If you are in the area where the Northern Lights will be, get away from light pollution as much as possible and just look up at the northern sky. Light pollution makes it much more difficult to see the Northern Lights, especially in the southernmost reaches of the Northern Lights where they will be dimmest. The darker the sky, the better.
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Photographing the aurora is a little more difficult, especially on a smartphone. Point the phone towards the sky and enable night mode to increase the exposure time as much as possible to get the best results. The further north you go, the better your results.
