It’s the height of the aurora borealis season, but the skies have been relatively calm lately, with only a few mild auroras over the last month. Get ready, though. The northern lights may light up the skies over parts of the US over the next couple of days, giving people in northern states a chance to marvel at rainbow skies.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Monday and Tuesday’s auroras are brought to Earth by a rather large X1.4-class solar flare that erupted from the sun late on March 29 and was caught on video by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The flare came from region 4405 of the sun, an area known to be magnetically complex and highly active. The flare lasted for hours and peaked at 11:19 p.m. ET Sunday night.
The CME may or may not cause a good aurora, but it definitely impacted radio communications and GPS.
The flare also launched a coronal mass ejection, a large burst of plasma that can create auroras, and that ejection should at least partially interact with Earth’s geomagnetic field. Any auroras from the solar storm likely won’t be too strong, but NOAA did issue an R3-level radio blackout. High-frequency radio communications were affected for about an hour, and navigation satellite signal quality was degraded for a while. This primarily affected Australia and Southern Asia, which were the sunlit parts of the world when the solar flare erupted.
Auroras this week
Monday’s aurora isn’t anything to write home about unless you’re in Alaska or Canada, although northern states like Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota may see some action.
Tuesday’s aurora is forecasted to be more of a show, with 15 states potentially in line to see the northern lights. Some people in Washington state, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and the northernmost reaches of Wisconsin should for sure see something. People who climb high enough and face north may see some northern lights on the horizon if they’re in Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The 15th state is Alaska, which will have its usual outstanding view of the aurora across virtually the whole state.
Tips on seeing the aurora borealis
The method for viewing the northern lights varies depending on how far south you are. Residents in Alaska, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota and the northern half of Wisconsin will have a much easier time than everyone else. All they’ll need to do is go outside, get away from lights, and look up. The aurora should be all over the sky, so it’s pretty easy to spot once you get away from city and suburban lights.
Viewing will be tougher for the other states listed. The aurora borealis should be at least partially visible along the northern horizon of those states, which means the key to seeing them is getting up as high as you can. The higher up you can get, the better your odds will be.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
