Seeing the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, is nearly always somewhere near the top of most people’s bucket lists. The incredible natural phenomenon creates a spectacle that people wait years, even lifetimes, to behold. The only caveat is that to see them clearly, you normally need to venture towards countries closest to the Arctic and Antarctic circles that are, though stunning, extremely cold and often remote.
Occasionally, however, freak incidents mean that the Northern Lights can sometimes be visible a lot further south than usual and this weekend might just be one of those moments as a strong solar storm has a high chance of making the lights visible in the skies of the Midwest.
What is the aurora borealis, aka the northern lights?
The aurora borealis is a stunning display of neon green waves that have captivated humans for millennia. They occur when a magnetic solar wind slams into the Earth’s magnetic field, causing the upper atmosphere to glow as particles interact with Earth’s atoms and molecules.
According to Space.com, “energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph.” In doing so, they create what Space.com calls “the Holy Grail of skywatching.”
When the energized particles from the sun interact with gases in our atmosphere, colors are created in the skies as oxygen gives off green and red light while nitrogen glows blue and purple.
Why will I be able to see it this weekend?
A significant geomagnetic storm recently produced a series of intense solar flares from the sun and “coronal mass ejections” aka CMEs. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), these CMEs are “large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona.”
These CMEs expand in size as they propagate away from the Sun and can eject billions of tons of coronal material and carry a particularly strong embedded magnetic field.
Consequently, this cloud of magnetic fields and charged particles interact with the gases in our atmosphere at a larger scale than usual and thus create a more significant Northern Lights event.
According to NOAA, several of these CMEs are likely to reach Earth at varying speeds late today (Friday, May 10th) or in the early hours of tomorrow (Saturday, May 11th) leading to extreme geomagnetic activity aka the Northern Lights.
“The aurora may become visible over much of the northern half of the country and maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California,” said NOAA.
How and when can I best see the Northern Lights this weekend?
As an aurora can often be observed from as much as 1000 km away if conditions are right you don’t need to spend ages driving north to try and be directly underneath it but finding somewhere with minimal light pollution will greatly increase your chances of seeing the Northern Lights in Illinois.
Magnetic orientation of the eruptions is impossible to predict so finding somewhere away from city lights is the best bet.
The aurora is not visible during daylight hours so it is best to look to the sky after sunset or before sunrise. Midnight tonight will reportedly be the best time to look to the skies tonight.
According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, .