US enjoys dazzling Northern Lights show (2024)

Millions of Americans have enjoyed a rare Northern Lights show caused by a geomagnetic storm that could interfere with power lines and communications.

From Maine to Alabamaand far into the United States' wild west, excited spectators gazed up at the night sky on Friday and watched the aurora's striking display of vivid colors.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, people shared pictures they had taken of the celestial phenomenon, and #aurora is currently trending.

Auroras are created when energy and particles from the sun temporarily interrupt Earth’s magnetosphere, creating a geomagnetic storm.

Some solar particles travel along our planet’s magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere, activating nitrogen and oxygen molecules and beaming photons of light in different colors.

According to the NOAA, the optimal places from which to watch the aurora are in the far northern latitudes, including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, and Northern Canada.

Because of the strength of this particular geomagnetic storm, the aurora was visible in places as far-flung as New Zealand, where people were witnessing the 'southern lights.'

Across America, people looked up in amazement at the aurora, which is being caused by the strongest solar storm in 21 years.

Some of the earliest pictures of the northern lights were taken in Maine, where the phenomenon was visible shortly after 9 pm.

However, soon the aurora spread and people reported seeing it as far south as Texas.

Among the many pictures of the aurora posted on X.com, there were some taken in places as wide ranging as Alabama, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Ohio, and Michigan.

There were also pictures taken in Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

Before the aurora was visible in America, it was illuminating the skies over Europe.

Although people were delighted with sight of the northern lights, the geomagnetic storm that's causing them has scientists slightly worried.

The storm was recorded as being of G5 (geomagnetic 5) strength by satellites around 8pm Friday - the strongest level available. It's the first G5 level storm since October 2003.

A tweet from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center said: 'Extreme (G5) geomagnetic conditions have been observed!'

The solar storms are set to last all weekend and pose a potential threat to power grids. They could causewidespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage to critical infrastructure. GPS devices are especially vulnerable and could experience major issues.

The solar storm is a result of six streams of plasma that have burst from the sun and are hurtling toward Earth.

Now that the streams of plasma are roughly one million miles from the planet, scientist are able to gauge the severity of the storm.

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center released an update that said the geomagnetic storm was going to be a 6 on the K-index, which is a scale that quantifies the disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. The scale ranges from 0, which is calm, to 9, which is severe.

A 6 is considered a moderate geomagnetic storm, which means that power systems located at high latitudes are especially vulnerable and can experience emergency situations.

If this particular geomagnetic storm should prove long, transformers and other electrical equipment could suffer damage.

The NOAA's current forecast is higher than their previous prediction, which was a 5.

Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist with the NOAA, announced that the geomagnetic storm was a G5 on the Hp30 index, which is a scale like the K-index, but it measures disturbances in shorter windows (30 minutes versus three hours).

A G5 storm would represent an extreme geomagnetic storm, a possibility that would be replete with serious problems and inconveniences.

At the farthest end of the index, a G5 would entail serious transformer damage and widespread blackouts.

High-frequency radio communications could possibly be rendered incapacitated for a few days.

And satellite navigation services, such as GPS, could be off-line for several days.

Dr. Skov wrote that time would 'tell if this #solarstorm has the punch to cause the (K-index) to reach G5 as well.'

Scientists have also predicted that three of the six streams, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), could combine to create a powerful 'cannibal CME.'

Geomagnetic storms take place when high-energy particles released from solar flares ejected by the sun reach Earth.

The sun is continuously erupting and hurling particles into space, but given that its 93 million miles from Earth, it rarely reaches us.

'We anticipate we will get one shock after another. We are really buckling down here,' Clinton Wallace, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), said during the Friday media briefing.

When the sun emits a solar flare, it creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) similar to that of a nuclear bomb which in turn can disable or destroy all electronic equipment, including satellites.

Friday’s geomagnetic storm is the result of several explosions on the sun, called coronal mass ejections.

These are large clouds of solar plasma and magnetic field.

Late Thursday night, the NOAA issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch, noting a a large sunspot cluster had produced several moderate to strong solar flares since Wednesday.

Sunspots are cooler parts on the sun's surface caused by massive changes in our star's magnetic field.

Often bigger than planets, sunspots appear dark on the sun's surface because they are cooler than other parts - although they're still very hot, around 6,500°F.

The NOAA said that the geomagnetic storm was 'a giant' because of two colossal sunspot clusters: one in the northern hemisphere of the sun and another in the southern hemisphere.

Sunspot AR3664, which released flares this week, is more than 124,000 miles across - about 16 times the diameter of Earth.

NOAA explained that GPS could see the most disruptions.

Rob Steenburgh, Space Scientist for SWPC, said: 'In the most severe cases, you'll see an actual loss of lock, so the so the receiver will lose lock on the satellite, and then that information that navigation of this navigation and timing information will be unavailable until it is able to reestablish the lock.

'So outage, with any luck, should not be prolonged.

It's going to depend on the number of spacecraft that are available to connect to the receiver and where they are on the horizon.'

NOAA said that people should prepare as they would for a power outage - batteries, flash lights and generators.

However, the agency has been intact with infrastructure operators in preparation for the geomagnetic storm.

'[People] won't have to do anything. And if everything's working like it should, will be stable they'll be able to go about their their daily lives,' said Steenburgh.

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