Stunning Images Capture Northern Lights Over U.S. and Canada

A gorgeous light show could be seen in the night sky over much of North America on Sunday night, with the aurora borealis visible as far south as California.

These spectacular displays appeared as a result of "severe" G4-class geomagnetic storm in the Earth's atmosphere, triggered by a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Predictions Center (SWPC) stated.

This powerful solar storm sparked the northern lights to ripple in the sky across the country. They were spotted in North Carolina, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Oklahoma, and people around the country flocked to social media to share the stunning images of the lights in their hometowns.

"What an amazing view of the Aurora Borealis just now in Mammoth Lakes, CA," Twitter user @RicardoDCortes tweeted alongside a picture of the sky lit up by a red-purple hue.

"Strongest geomagnetic storm in decades is bringing amazing Northern Lights displays incredibly far south into California," Colin McCarthy, an extreme weather expert and content creator, said as he retweeted the image.

"WOW!! INCREDIBLE meteor with smoke trail just fell through the northern lights near Apple River, Illinois!" weather enthusiast @landon_wx also tweeted.

CMEs are massive plumes of solar plasma emitted from the sun when twisted magnetic field lines suddenly realign in a process known as magnetic reconnection. This can spit out X-rays in the form of solar flares ands release huge amounts of solar material in the form of a CME. Some CMEs can travel extremely fast, reaching the Earth in 15 to 18 hours, while others take several days.

When the CME collides with the Earth's magnetic field, much of the solar plasma is deflected, but some of it is routed towards the planet's North and South poles, where they react with gasses in the atmosphere in a geomagnetic storm, creating the characteristic green, purple and red lights.

Geomagnetic storms are classed on a scale of G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme), with G4 being the second strongest form, the NOAA explains. Despite being relatively uncommon, the Earth has seen a number of G4 storms in the past few months, resulting in the aurora being seen as far south as Florida in late March.

The different colors of the aurora are a result of different elements in our atmosphere reacting with the solar plasma, and releasing different wavelengths of light as a result.

"The different colors are the result of electrons relaxing from different energy levels from oxygen (the most common reds and greens) and nitrogen (dark reds/blues)," Brett Carter, an associate professor in space science at RMIT University in Australia, told Newsweek in February.

Closer to the ground, the CME reacts to create green light, while red light is emitted further up in the atmosphere. This is why observers further from the poles (south of the North Pole or north of the South Pole) tend to see the lights as red-purple colors, compared to the rippling greens seen closer to the poles, as seen in Canada on Sunday.

"That red color is usually also rather faint since you do not have that many of the oxygen atoms around at such high altitudes," Daniel Brown, an associate professor in astronomy and science communication at Nottingham Trent University in the U.K, previously told Newsweek.

With stronger geomagnetic storms, more solar particles can interact with more oxygen, therefore making the red colors brighter.

The more powerful the geomagnetic storm, the further from the poles the lights can be seen. This G4 storm in particular resulted in sightings in the U.K., and in the southern hemisphere, the aurora australis could be seen as far north as the Australian state of Victoria.

NOAA forecasts predict that the G4 storm will continue until around 8 a.m. ET on Monday.

G4 storms can also result in widespread voltage control problems, issues with spacecraft tracking and orientation, resulting in the need for corrections to course, as well as problems with satellite navigation and low-frequency radio, NOAA's SWPC states.

G4 storms usually occur roughly 100 times per 11-year solar cycle; G5 storms on the other hand only hit the Earth around four times in that period. The current solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, began in 2019 and is to culminate in 2025. Therefore, as the sun ramps up toward its maximum, we may see increasing numbers of more powerful solar weather events.

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about auroras? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

Uncommon Knowledge

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