Northern lights may be visible Thursday night in parts of New York
Aurora borealis lights up NYC skies
Skies across the northeast were lit up by a rare aurora borealis on Thursday night thanks a geomagnetic storm, delighting stargazers.
NEW YORK - The Northern Lights are expected to be visible across the northern U.S. on Thursday and possibly early Friday after a strong geomagnetic storm watch was issued. This includes parts of New York.
What we know:
The sun has produced three different solar flares in recent days, creating a coronal mass ejection (CME) directed at Earth.
CMEs will launch a stream of solar particles into space along the solar wind. If the stream is directed at the Earth, those charged particles will interact with our magnetic field, transferring energy into our upper atmosphere and causing variations in our magnetic field.
How to survive a coronal mass ejection
Most of Earth's modern power grids are more than capable of handling a large solar flare or coronal mass ejection but, what if a particularly strong space weather event took place?
The charged particles of a CME create the beautiful dancing lights known as the aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights. These lights are typically only seen near the North Pole, but during more intense solar storms, they can be seen as far south as the southern U.S.
Where will the northern lights be visible?
The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G3 or "strong" geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday and Friday, with the highest possibility of seeing auroras in the U.S. potentially as far south as Seattle, Chicago and Boston.
Geomagnetic storms can affect power grids, satellite operations and be a danger for astronauts in space. The exact timing and intensity of the CME is still uncertain, and their arrivals could overlap, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
When will the northern lights be visible?
What you can do:
The FOX Forecast Center said the possible area for auroras overlaps with the same regions expected to see severe storms the next few days. For the best chances of seeing the Northern Lights, travel away from city lights into an open area when searching for them.