2024-05-10 13:53:00
- A beautiful aurora might be visible further south than usual this Friday, lighting up the northern US.
- This is due to an overactive, giant spot seven times the size of Earth erupting on the sun.
- Northern border states from Washington to Michigan are likely to see the aurora on Friday night.
For the first time in 20 years, NOAA has issued a G4 geomagnetic storm warning. The Northern lights is forecast to reach further south than usual this Friday, blazing states across the northern US.
G4s are the second strongest type of solar storm. They are known to cause radio outages and power grid outages, but experts do not expect these impending ejections to cause any problems on Friday, said Matt Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, and Alex Young, the collaborator. director for science at NASA Goddard’s Heliophysics Science Division, told Business Insider.
“With the eruptions of this group, I think we’re going to see some really good aurora. I wouldn’t expect too many really bad effects,” Owens said.
Typically, the best time to see aurora is between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM local time, as this is when the most activeaccording to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
We owe the coming aurora mainly to a giant, hyperactive sun spot called AR3664, it is seven times the size of Earth and has been producing powerful eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, for the last few days.
Over the past few days, AR3664 has grown in size and is one of the largest and most active sunspots for this solar cycle (which began in December 2019), Space.com reported.
NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite captured this image of activity in the sun’s corona on May 10. NOAA
And in the past 24 hours, AR3664 has spewed four coronal mass ejections that are now hurtling toward Earth at regarding 560 miles per second, Owens told BI.
Where auroras are predicted in the US
Because of the relatively strong magnetic field of these incoming coronal mass ejections, Friday’s aurora is predicted to make a rare appearance, extending as far as Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Even states including Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania can catch a glimpse of the aurora low on the horizon, Young told BI.
“This is the most extreme estimate,” Young said. The reality is that we just won’t know how bright, active and widespread the aurora will be until the coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s atmosphere. Even experts’ estimates of when they will arrive only provide a rough ballpark.
“Our timing might be way off,” Owens said.
Head over to the NOAA’s to watch the aurora on Friday space weather website for the latest forecast to see if they will be visible where you are.
Then just step outside as soon as it’s completely dark and look up. If you are lucky, you might see this spectacular sight.
Correction – May 10, 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed information and a quote to Andrew Gerrard of the New Jersey Institute of Tech. The most extreme estimate of aurora and where they can be seen in the US comes from Alex Young.
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