Aurora Borealis Displays Possible In Northern States After Solar Storm

ACROSS AMERICA —Northern-tier states from Washington to Maine could see dazzling displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, Tuesday, according to a new geomagnetic storm warning.

The Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the coronal mass ejection, or CME, was likely a “cannibal CME” that triggered a powerful geomagnetic storm and the likelihood of seeing the ethereal light displays.

“Cannibal CMEs form when a fast-moving CME devours one or more slower CMEs ahead of it,” aurora forecasters said. “The combined cloud contains tangled magnetic fields that can do a good job sparking auroras.”

The chances are best in Alaska and Canada, according to NOAA, but any area near the 65-degree latitude mark and points north.

Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist, offered a more optimistic picture for auroras in mid-latitude states such as Oregon, northern California, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia.

Skov said she’s had to update her forecast “every single day because things are changing that dramatically.”

The colorful lights are unpredictable, and there’s no guarantee you’ll see them. The best times to see the auroras are usually the hours between 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., according to the Aurora Hunter website. And the months between August and April are typically the best because there are more nighttime hours.

And the chances of seeing them are stronger than usual during this particularly active time for the sun as it approaches solar maximum, the point midway through the 11-year cycle in which the sun’s magnetic fields flip polarity.

The sun is currently in Solar Cycle 25, which began in December 2019. That puts the solar maximum somewhere between March 2024 and March 2026, most likely around July 2025, the agency said.

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“The Sun’s activity has quickly ramped up and even though we haven’t reached peak levels in this cycle, the Sun’s activity is already exceeding predictions,” Nicola Fox, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, wrote on a blog last week. “Solar events will continue to increase as we near solar maximum in 2025, and our lives and technology on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space, will be impacted.”

That’s already happening to some extent. Sunday’s solar storm created colorful northern light displays in Michigan and elsewhere Monday night.

But what’s breathtakingly beautiful in aurora-prone regions could create problems far south, hampering Hurricane Ian rescue operations in areas where cellular service hasn’t been restored.

Radio communications were disrupted by the solar storm Sunday, and NOAA said Tuesday the same thing could happen with the latest CMEs. Such storms also may affect GPS positioning services and cause some minor power grid issues, NOAA said.