Auroras may be visible on Thanksgiving

On By Littum

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Aurora chasers have reason to be thankful this Thursday, as a solar storm is expected 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, prompting NOAA’s Tempo 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 the power grid, but it could also provide some extra Thanksgiving entertainment after football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are long over. Because of the way solar particles interact with Earth’s magnetosphere, the powerful outburst should make the pulsing aurora visible to a wider swath of the Northern Hemisphere than usual.

Here’s what you need to know about the Northern Lights and how you can potentially see them on Thanksgiving night in the US.

Northern Lights: Amid the solar maximum, auroras should be more visible across the United States

NOAA issues Thanksgiving week geomagnetic storm watch

NOAA have the track a coronal mass ejection since Sunday that exploded from the sun on an orbit that should reach Earth later this week.

Forecasters use a five-level scale to measure geometric storms, which occur 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 on Thursday and a moderate G2 intensity on Friday.

Of course, the predicted storm won’t quite make the G4 level that came on October 10, but it should still reveal auroras across the Northern Hemisphere.

Where will the Northern Lights be visible?

The Northern Lights are best seen around the magnetic poles of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres in places such as Europe, Asia and North America. In the United States, Alaska is well known for having the best viewing opportunities for the northern lights.

But Thursday’s incoming solar storm should make the northern lights visible further from the poles. The geomagnetic activity has a Kp index of 5, which means that the northern lights will also be brighter, according to to NOAA.

“If you’re in the right place, these aurora borealis can be quite pleasant to watch,” the agency says.

In the United States, northern lights may become visible in some northern and upper Midwestern states from New York to Idaho, according to SWPC’s experimental Aurora line of sight. Display visibility 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 University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute website that tracks the phenomenon.

These 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 streaming from the sun that become trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, causing colorful auroras to form when they interact with molecules of atmospheric gases. In the coming months, the resulting glowing northern lights can be quite a sight to behold – if you look up at the right time.

Although conditions are prime for several impending aurora shows, experts have long struggled to accurately predict exactly when and where the phenomenon will ever occur. Even the best predictions can only be made accurately a few days or even hours in advance.

But as a rule of thumb, if the weather is clear, the best northern lights are usually visible within an hour or two after midnightaccording to NOAA. And if it looks like the northern lights will flare up near you, it is advised to get away from cities and travel to dark places free from light pollution.

The board also maintains an aurora dashboard that should help skygazers track the phenomenon.

What causes the northern lights

The aurora is a natural light display in the Earth’s sky, best seen in high latitudes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The phenomenon occurs when electrically charged particles from space enter the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with molecules and gases such as 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 in Fairbanks.

When auroras form, the Earth’s magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles in a process that produces a stunning display of rays, spirals, and flickers that have fascinated humans for millennia. Whether shades of green, red, blue and even pink dance around the sky is due to the height at which the collisions occur, as well as the composition and density of the atmosphere at the time.

Why aurora activity is increasing

Now that the sun is at the height of its 11-year cycle, the increase in solar activity has more often fueled space weather that provides the right conditions for aurora borealis to flourish.

Areas of intense magnetic activity known as sunspots proliferate on the surface of the Sun 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 may be accompanied by coronal mass ejections, or clouds of plasma and charged particles emerging from the Sun’s outermost atmosphere, the corona.

These ejecta can collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, the barrier that protects humanity from the harshest effects of space weather, to produce geomagnetic storms that release a spectacular view of the northern lights in parts of the country where the northern lights are not often visible.

What’s more, because NASA expects the solar maximum to continue into 2025, aurora chasers should have many more opportunities to catch the northern lights.

Eric Lagatta covers the latest and trending news for USA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected]