A rare, severe solar storm brought the remarkable colors of the northern lights to Massachusetts on Thursday night, and there may be another chance to see them on Friday night.”This is the second time this year that here in southern New England that we’ve been able to see the Northern Lights. Some of us go an entire lifetime never seeing them,” said StormTeam 5 chief meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon. “What’s happening, basically, is we’ve had this solar flare off the sun, and these particles travel through space. And when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at the poles, basically those charged particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere and create these colors, which we are able to see.”According to Ross Barros-Smith, director of the McAuliffe Center Planetarium, the aurora borealis could surprise skywatchers across the area, much like it did last night.”We could all be as surprised as we were yesterday,” Barros-Smith said.The different colors appear at varying altitudes, with green auroras typically occurring about 150 miles above the surface and pink hues forming around 60 miles up.“What we call the view line is still up in Canada right now, but these are just predictions,” Barros-Smith said. “We’ll have more opportunities in the coming months.”Video: Timelapse of the northern lights on Oct. 10 A coronal mass ejection (CME) came off of the sun on Tuesday. The CME was racing toward Earth, peaking on Thursday. It will continue on Friday, although not as strongly.”The storm, the geomagnetic storm that triggered all that display last night, was severe. It is forecast to be minor to weak tonight, so there is still a chance to see them tonight. I just don’t think it’s going to be quite as intense and vivid as it was last night,” said Fitzgibbon. Weather conditions over Massachusetts should be favorable for the viewing, with clear skies in the forecast. Slideshow below: Photos from Thursday night’s auroraA smaller geomagnetic storm earlier this week caused northern lights that were photographed over Ipswich Bay on Sunday night.In May, another strong solar storm caused the northern lights to be visible over much of the United States, including Massachusetts and other parts of New England. (Video below)
A rare, severe solar storm brought the remarkable colors of the northern lights to Massachusetts on Thursday night, and there may be another chance to see them on Friday night.
“This is the second time this year that here in southern New England that we’ve been able to see the Northern Lights. Some of us go an entire lifetime never seeing them,” said StormTeam 5 chief meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon. “What’s happening, basically, is we’ve had this solar flare off the sun, and these particles travel through space. And when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at the poles, basically those charged particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere and create these colors, which we are able to see.”
According to Ross Barros-Smith, director of the McAuliffe Center Planetarium, the aurora borealis could surprise skywatchers across the area, much like it did last night.
“We could all be as surprised as we were yesterday,” Barros-Smith said.
The different colors appear at varying altitudes, with green auroras typically occurring about 150 miles above the surface and pink hues forming around 60 miles up.
“What we call the view line is still up in Canada right now, but these are just predictions,” Barros-Smith said. “We’ll have more opportunities in the coming months.”
Video: Timelapse of the northern lights on Oct. 10
A coronal mass ejection (CME) came off of the sun on Tuesday. The CME was racing toward Earth, peaking on Thursday. It will continue on Friday, although not as strongly.
“The storm, the geomagnetic storm that triggered all that display last night, was severe. It is forecast to be minor to weak tonight, so there is still a chance to see them tonight. I just don’t think it’s going to be quite as intense and vivid as it was last night,” said Fitzgibbon.
Weather conditions over Massachusetts should be favorable for the viewing, with clear skies in the forecast.
Slideshow below: Photos from Thursday night’s aurora
A smaller geomagnetic storm earlier this week caused northern lights that were photographed over Ipswich Bay on Sunday night.
In May, another strong solar storm caused the northern lights to be visible over much of the United States, including Massachusetts and other parts of New England. (Video below)
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