If you like to watch all kinds of celestial phenomena, you should definitely be on the lookout in the next few nights, as the coming solar storm can cause the colorful Northern lights.
Last weekend in the crown of the nearest star opened a giant hole. Such holes are formed when the open magnetic field lines of the Sun, allowing hot plasma to escape into space. Freed, the plasma becomes part of the solar wind. Forecasters estimated that this flow was expected to reach our planet in the beginning of the week.
When such gusts of the solar wind reach Earth, the charged particles interact with the magnetic field of our planet, causing this spectacular celestial phenomenon like the Northern lights.
According Spaceweather.com the first waves have already covered the ground, and eyewitnesses reported an amazing Aurora over Tasmania and Alaska, which occurred in the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Currently, experts from the National oceanic and atmospheric administration forecast a 50-60 percent chance that the Northern lights will continue to happen, at least until 9 November. In other words, if the weather allows, the residents of the regions located to the North of 40s latitude (roughly North of a line drawn from Philadelphia to Denver), will be able to witness the delightful colored lights of the Aurora. Experts say that the Aurora can even illuminate the sky over new York city and Seattle, so if you live in the middle latitudes, you still need to look at the night sky.
The best time to observe auroras starts in the middle of the evening and lasts deep into the night. When a geomagnetic storm of sufficient intensity the first hints of lights appear after dusk, however, in all the beauty of Aurora will Shine only to midnight. To navigate when the horizon opens up before you, if you look to the North.
