A Hole In The Sun's Atmosphere Is Causing Dazzling Aurora You Can Watch Live
Eric MackContributor
Sep 3, 2022,04:43pm EDT
Photograph of the Northern Lights, also known as, an Aurora. An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, especially in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric charged particles with the high altitude atmosphere. Dated 2014 (Photo by:Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Be on the lookout for Northern Lights in your neighborhood this weekend as a lot of activity on the sun is increasing the chance more people than usual might be able to take in the Aurora Borealis (or Aurora Australis in the far southern hemisphere).
A so-called coronal hole in the sun’s atmosphere has opened up a gap in our star’s magnetic field that allows more solar wind than normal to escape from the sun’s outer layer, or corona.
The result is a whole bunch of charged particles slamming into our own planet’s magnetosphere, producing a moderate G2-level geomagnetic storm that could trigger some radio outages for mariners and aviators. But more of interest to the general public, such a storm moves the visible range of the aurora to lower latitudes than normal.
In particular, the forecast from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center puts the potential extent of the aurora as far as 50 degrees of geomagnetic latitude, which means that some big cities like Boston, New York, Chicago and Seattle have at least a chance of taking in those rare dancing lights.
387304 01: UNDATED FILE PHOTO: Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights as seen from South Australia as with Aurora Borealis, are displayed during strong geomagnetic events. According to NASA March 29, 2001 the sun recently sent a powerful energy burst in the direction of Earth triggering dazzling aurora displays over nighttime skies on Friday and Saturday, NASA astronomers said. Directed toward Earth, such blasts can distort Earth's magnetic field, producing in extreme latitudes, colorful nocturnal sky displays known as auroras, or the Northern and Southern Lights. (Photo courtesy of NOAA/Newsmakers)GETTY IMAGES
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2022/09/03/a-hole-in-the-suns-atmosphere-is-causing-dazzling-aurora-you-can-watch-live/
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