A massive geomagnetic storm could make the Northern Lights visible in the Chicago area on multiple nights this week.
According to the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center, a G3 geomagnetic storm watch is in effect after a series of coronal mass ejections (CME’s) from the sun earlier this week, which could make the Aurora Borealis visible across a wide swath of the United States.
According to the NBC 5 Storm Team, the Northern Lights could be visible Thursday night, with the biggest possibility of seeing the show in the late evening hours between 8 and 10 p.m. They may still be visible later than that, but cloud cover could spoil the view for some in the area.
If residents miss the show on Thursday night, it is possible that the Lights may be visible again Friday, with much clearer conditions across the area. The Aurora Borealis may not be as strong however, meaning that using a phone camera may be a better way to see them, according to officials.
According to the SWPC, CME’s are “large explosions of plasma and magnetized particles from the Sun’s corona.” Those ejections expand in size as they approach Earth’s atmosphere, and can cause geomagnetic storms when the arrive.
The Northern Lights occur when those charged particles hit Earth’s magnetic field, interacting with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere and producing brilliant and wavy colors in the sky.
The Northern Lights are generally visible only at high altitudes, but instances like this week’s geomagnetic storm can cause those particles to be visible across greater distances.
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