With many Chicago-area residents getting a fascinating display of the Northern Lights, NBC 5 Storm Team meteorologist Kevin Jeanes explains what a geomagnetic storm is and how it causes the phenomenon.
Illinois residents may be able to look into the skies and see an incredible display of the Northern Lights thanks to a massive geomagnetic storm.
According to new updates, a G4 geomagnetic storm is currently occurring in the skies over the Earth, causing the Space Weather Prediction Center to issue a geomagnetic storm watch for the United States.
According to officials, a significant coronal mass ejection began hammering Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday morning, and could continue to do so for at least two days.
In fact, the storm is so strong that if skies are clear on Thursday night, the Northern Lights could be seen as far south as Alabama and northern California, and could be visible overhead throughout the state of Illinois.
Fluctuations in the number of solar particles hitting Earth's atmosphere is difficult to predict, according to officials, but the effects of the CME could stick around for several days.
A consequence of the solar storm could be impacted communications, which could hinder rescue efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. According to officials, systems that “depend on low-Earth orbit satellites or high-frequence communication” could be interrupted, along with GPS navigation systems.
There are tools to help mitigate those issues, and FEMA has infrastructure in place to help prevent the worst impacts, according to the SWPC.
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The Northern Lights are enhanced when coronal mass ejections, or CME’s, erupt from the sun and speed across space before hitting Earth’s atmosphere. 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 they 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.
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The Northern Lights are generally visible only at higher latitudes, but instances like this week’s geomagnetic storm can cause those particles to be visible across greater distances.
