Where can I see the northern lights? Skies will clear for Philly's final chance to see the aurora tonight
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Third time is the charm! Philadelphia, we have a good chance to see the Aurora Borealis Sunday night.
The past two nights Mother Nature has treated much of the world to the best show of northern lights in several decades. Clouds and showers have hampered our views but tonight that changes. Skies will clear to partly cloudy and mostly clear after sunset providing us an opportunity.
Our sun has continued to shower Earth with a parade of geomagnetic storms and tonight will be the last in this series.
The geomagnetic storm that triggered the northern lights Friday and Saturday night is the strongest in more than 2 decades. We began Mother's Day in an Extreme G5 storm and will downgrade through today to a Strong G3 storm watch tonight. However that may once again be increased due to increased activity expected tonight.
Incredible displays of the Northern Lights were seen as far south as Florida and Puerto Rico. From the gulf coast to Canada, and California to the Carolinas, everyone not under cloud cover had a chance to see the lights.
Although tonight's viewing line is slightly north of the area, we still have a good chance to see a light show. The past two nights lights have dipped hundreds of miles south of the viewing line and during a G3 level storm northern lights are possible in Philadelphia.
The best chance to see the aurora borealis will be away from bright lights and on the horizon to the north and west.
If the lights do not materialize tonight don't fret. There will likely be many more chances during the next year since we are at the height of this unusually busy solar cycle.
Why are the Northern Lights happening now?
We are currently in what is known as solar cycle #25. Solar cycles are 11 years long and it just so happens 2024 and 2025 are the peak of this cycle.
Cycle #25 also has the highest solar activity seen in years.
Over the past several weeks our sun has kicked into high gear with a constant stream of solar flares. Those are bursts of electromagnetic radiation erupting from a large sunspot on the surface of the sun.
The solar flares are rated as B-Class, C-Class, M-Class and X-Class flares with X-Class being the strongest. X-flares are the rarest and 10x stronger than M-Class flares which are 10x stronger than C-Class flares, etc.
The sun has numerous sunspots that can eject a solar flare, but currently, a giant sunspot known as AR3664 has produced numerous X-flares.
AR3664 is the large light area seen on the lower right of this NOAA image of the sun. It is 16x wider than Earth and visible with simple eclipse-type glasses.
Not all solar flares result in a geomagnetic storm and Northern Lights. Only some of the solar flares spew large amounts of magnetized plasma known as CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections) into space.
Sometimes these CMEs are directed at Earth and that is when geomagnetic storms are possible.
Incredibly there were seven CMEs of magnetically charged plasma ejected off the sun in the past few days. All of these CMEs were directed at Earth. With speeds of 1 million miles per hour, three of those CMEs merged before hitting our atmosphere leading to a powerful geomagnetic storm Friday night and Saturday.
When the CME reaches our atmosphere the electrons from the sun's plasma interact with the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in our air creating the colorful ionized particles that drift through our upper atmosphere. This interaction all occurs in the polar regions where the atmosphere is thinnest.
When it is a weaker geomagnetic storm, the light show is usually confined to higher latitudes including Canada, Russia, Alaska, Iceland and Norway. It is during these rare severe G4 and extreme G5 storms that the celestial show dips well into the mid-section and even deep south of the nation like it did Friday night and early Saturday morning.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issues alerts for all geomagnetic storms. The last extreme G5 storm alert was in 2003 when communications were interrupted worldwide; there were power outages across Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
These strong geomagnetic storms can impact communications, navigation systems in aircraft and ships, radio transmissions, satellites, space stations, power grids, infrastructure and technology.
The strongest geomagnetic storm in recorded history is known as the "Carrington Event." It took place in September 1859 at the peak of what was solar cycle #10. The solar radiation that reached Earth was so intense that telegraph lines caught on fire and the aurora borealis was visible worldwide.
A Carrington-type storm is expected every 100 to 1,000 years. Saturday night's geomagnetic storm won't be that strong but the giant sunspot AR3664 producing this storm is as large as the sunspot that emitted the Carrington Event storm. AR3664 is being watched closely by space agencies because if a geomagnetic storm of that storm intensity hit Earth today, there would be catastrophic disruptions and damage.
Stay with the NEXT Weather Team for updates on this geomagnetic storm and what is expected to be a very active year ahead with more chances to see the magical dancing lights of the aurora borealis.
