Northern Lights Could Be Visible In Wisconsin Thursday

WISCONSIN — A solar storm made a "direct hit" on Earth Tuesday and more storms were expected in its aftermath, possibly triggering aurora borealis displays in Wisconsin and other areas where the northern lights are rarely seen, according to NASA space weather physicist and forecaster Tamitha Skov.

The best chance to see the lights this week appears to be Thursday. In the Milwaukee area, the National Weather Service forecast mostly clear skies and chances of thunderstorms Thursday night, but you may want to find a spot up north or in an area with less nighttime light than the metro area.

Some dark spots around Wisconsin include far north areas and areas just north of Madison, according to Darkskyfinder.com.

Skov said in a Monday space weather forecast that the snake-like stream of filament that “cartwheeled” off the sun and another “one-two punch” could frustrate emergency crews and others who rely on radio signals, but delight aurora hunters.

Conditions remain favorable over the next week for aurora displays in mid-latitude states. Visibility could extend as far south as Virginia and North Carolina, according to Skov’s forecast.

Skov’s prediction that the solar storm that made a direct hit could create auroras proved out. Aurora displays were seen in Seattle as the northern lights danced across Washington state early Tuesday morning. A first-time aurora photographer in South Dakota.

Photographers in mid-latitudes and farther north should keep their camera batteries charged over the next week, Skov said.

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Solar storms 93 million miles from Earth occur with more frequency midway through an 11-year cycle in which the sun's magnetic fields flip polarity — and that means the northern lights could dance more often in the next decade or so.

They are never guaranteed, of course, but aurora experts say the busy season for sunspots should peak between 2023 and 2028.

The sun's magnetic field flips polarity about once every 11 years — and we're in the middle of that process, the "solar maximum, solar storm equivalent of the hurricane season, according to Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

"The sun has negative and positive polarity, just like Earth," Murtagh told meteorologist Jennifer Gray. "During this 11-year period, it does a reversal of the polarity. So negative becomes positive and positive becomes negative. During the middle of that process and transition, that's when those sunspots emerge. So we go through a process when we are in the middle of this transition, we get lots of sunspots and lots of space weather."

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The science behind the aurora borealis is complicated, and all many people care to know is that they're jaw-droppingly beautiful.

The aurora borealis becomes visible to the human eyes when electrons from solar storms collide with the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

In normal circumstances, the Earth's magnetic field guides the electrons in such a way that the aurora forms two ovals approximately centered at the magnetic poles.