Wyoming, Look Up! Northern Lights May Be Visible This Week

WYOMING — Northern Wyoming residents should look to the skies this week, as the Northern Lights might streak across the northern part of the state, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Space Weather Prediction Center said Kp 6 activity will likely happen Thursday between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Part of northern Wyoming was rated as Kp 7, indicating there's a good chance for the state to see the lights.

Officials issued a moderate geomagnetic storm watch after Monday's dramatic explosion on the sun produced a coronal mass ejection.

The skies are expected to be partly cloudy in northern Wyoming on Thursday, with temperatures falling to about 30 degrees.

What Are The Northern Lights?

As the Library of Congress explains, polar lights, or aurora polaris, are a natural phenomenon found in both the northern and southern hemispheres that can be "truly awe inspiring."

The Northern lights are also called by their scientific name, aurora borealis, while southern lights are called aurora australis.

Sten Odenwald, author of The 23rd Cycle: learning to live with a stormy star, said the northern lights originate on the surface of the sun, when solar activity ejects a cloud of gas.

The origin of the aurora begins on the surface of the sun when solar activity ejects a cloud of gas. Scientists call this a coronal mass ejection (CME). If one of these reaches earth, taking about 2 to 3 days, it collides with the Earth’s magnetic field. This field is invisible, and if you could see its shape, it would make Earth look like a comet with a long magnetic ‘tail’ stretching a million miles behind Earth in the opposite direction of the sun.

When a coronal mass ejection collides with the magnetic field, it causes complex changes to happen to the magnetic tail region. These changes generate currents of charged particles, which then flow along lines of magnetic force into the Polar Regions. These particles are boosted in energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere, and when they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce dazzling auroral light.

While the lights are technically visible anywhere, but they are more frequent the more north or south you go, in places like Alaska, Canada and Antarctica. However, the lights have been visible near the equator, including as far south as Mexico.

In places like Alaska and Greenland, the lights can be visible most nights of the year, and even happen during the day, though the eye can only see them when it's dark.

People see colors and patterns when ions or atoms collide with the atmosphere and become energized as they're affected by lines of magnetic force.

"Displays may take many forms, including rippling curtains, pulsating globs, traveling pulses, or steady glows," the Library writes."

Furthermore, altitude determines the colors.

Blue violet/reds happens below 60 miles. Bright green is strongest between 60-150 miles. And ruby reds appear at elevations above 150 miles.