Remember all the Social media posts from a few months ago showing the Northern Lights, in all their glory, in unexpectedly southern locations? Well, get ready to potentially see them again, or for the first time: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) predicts that light displays will appear again in unusual places this week, starting Tuesday.
Auroras are expected in the coming days across northern and midwestern US states, northern UK and parts of northern Europe. The UK Met Office predicts A “strong geomagnetic storm” is on its way to hit Earth.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration anticipa For the U.S., the aurora lasting from Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning will have a Kp index level of five (the index is a nine-point scale that measures disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field, with level nine being the strongest). This means the lights will appear farther south of the poles than usual and will be visible to observers in northern U.S. states stretching from Maine to Washington.
As for Europe, the UK Met Office has forecast “a maximum likelihood of severe geomagnetic storm conditions (G3) on Wednesday 24 July,” the meteorological service said in a statement. Space weather forecast On July 23, “a northern light display could occur in Northern Ireland, northern England and similar geomagnetic latitudes, although this will be hampered by a nearly full moon and some periods of darkness.” In the southern hemisphere, the Met Office predicts “a northern light display in Tasmania and southern parts of New Zealand.”
SpaceWeatherLive, a Belgian nonprofit that tracks auroral and solar activity, predicts the geomagnetic storm approaching the Northern Hemisphere will reach a Kp index level of 6 this week, and expects the storm to peak between Wednesday and Thursday.
This does not exactly match the strength of the geomagnetic storms of May 10. All three UK geomagnetic observatories recorded that the May storm had a Kp index level of 9the highest possible rating. Because this week’s storms are expected to be weaker, we probably won’t see auroras as vivid as we did then, and they probably won’t extend as far from Earth’s poles. In May, auroras extended as far as continental Europe and the southern states of the U.S.
The intense solar activity of recent months has occurred as the sun approaches the top of its 11-year solar cycle. As we approach solar maximum, which is predicted to occur between late 2024 and early 2026, we should expect to see auroras more frequently and at lower latitudes than usual, NOAA predicts.
This all comes after NASA captured the largest solar flare in seven years in December. The flare prompted NOAA to report the event… issue warnings about possible weak fluctuations in the power grid and disruption to radio services and spacecraft. The administration is monitoring sunspot regions, looking for possible explosions of solar material, or “coronal mass ejections,” that could be headed toward Earth and cause these colorful light shows at higher latitudes. In this next case, it’s an explosion of solar material that occurred Sunday that could cause us to see the northern lights from Tuesday through Thursday.
If you want to have the best chance of seeing the auroras this week, wherever you are, try to go somewhere with as little light pollution as possible and check the weather forecast for cloud cover – the sky should be as dark and clear as possible. Also, try to take photos with your phone’s camera, as this will often produce a better image than one you can get with the naked eye.