Strong Possibility for You to See Aurora Borealis Tonight

This New Year Eve could register a massive solar storm.  The storm will create a strong possibility for you to see  Aurora borealis tonight. The solar storm was predicted by NOAA, stating that the speed at which the atmosphere will be hit by the solar flare will enable the inhabitants from Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon and other states to see the Northern lights.

The meteorologist David Samuhel from AccuWeather, said that the regions situated along Canada’s border will have the most chances of seeing the Northern lights.  Meteorologists expect for the clouds to dissipate across the Northern and Upper Midwest, which will lead to the possibility of seeing the rare and beautiful lights. The area with the clearest sky will be the Pacific Northwest, which will lead to the best conditions to see the lights.

But the geomagnetic storm won’t bring only beautiful sky sights. The high altitude radio signals are expected to be disrupted, the power grids will face fluctuations and the reception for cell phones, satellites and GPS will be affected.

The solar storm is also called coronal mass ejection and consists of immense bursts of magnetic field and gas from the sun. A physicist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explained it as a piece of the sun’s atmosphere, containing electrons and protons and carrying a magnetic field. As those particles will enter the magnetic field of the earth, Northern lights will be triggered on the sky.

This isn’t the first time that a solar flare is expected to hit the earth. In the beginning of this week, NOAA announced a coronal mass ejection and an M1 flare. The solar storm hit the earth this Wednesday morning. Today’s stronger G1 storm will make possible viewing the aurora borealis in unexpected parts of America. Terry Onsager from NOAA said that only if the storm will have a big enough strength, the lights will be seen.

When solar particles containing high energy hit the electromagnetic field of the Earth, the aurora borealis is created. As the electric disturbance cause gas ions in the atmosphere, and they start to glow in different colors. The aurora borealis is found more at the poles because the magnetosphere there is the thinnest on earth, allowing the particles to enter the atmosphere more simply.  At the North Pole the lights are called Northern lights or aurora borealis, while at the South Pole they are called aurora australis.

If you will be in one of the regions named by the scientists, there will be a strong possibility for you to see  Aurora borealis tonight.

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