Look Up! Huge Northern Lights Display Possible

The Northern Lights could be seen overnight in Michigan and much of the northern United States — and possibly as far south as Oklahoma City and Raleigh, NC, space weather forecasters said Monday.

The reason is the possibility of a G3 magnetic storm Monday night, which increases the chances that the Aurora Borealis will be seen. Click this link and see the map: the green to white shaded areas have a good chance of seeing the light show, if they occur.

The Northern Lights result from collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere.

The variations in color are caused by the different types of gas particles that collide.

The most common color is a pale yellowish green. On rare occasions, all-red auroras produced by high-altitude oxygen appear high in the heavens. Blue or purplish-red auroras are produced by nitrogen.

» Photo via Flickr user Justin Stevens/Creative Commons