The aurora may be visible in the sky again Saturday night, depending upon the weather, federal forecasters said.
Severe and extreme geomagnetic storms associated with coronal mass ejections, or solar eruptions, are likely Sunday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
When the material from the sun arrives at Earth, it can cause a geomagnetic storm. During the storm, an aurora may be visible. An aurora is a natural electrical phenomenon characterized by shimmering lights in the upper atmosphere at night, usually near the northern or southern magnetic pole. They happen when energetic particles from the sun interact with atoms in the upper atmosphere.
While they acknowledge they’re not aurora experts, the National Weather Service in Morristown (Tennessee) said there is a chance that people in the region could see the aurora again tonight, when skies are expected to clear. The best way to look is to face north and use a camera with an exposure to capture the faint colors, the NWS said. The forecast for Oak Ridge calls for mostly clear skies on Saturday night.
Auroras were visible across much of the United States on Friday night. Many people in East Tennessee reported using an iPhone set on night mode to capture photos of the aurora.
The SWPC said the the threat of additional strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections “will remain until the large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster…rotates out of view over the next several days. Several coronal mass ejections are expected to merge and arrive at Earth on Sunday. The region of the sun that is active and producing flares is 16 times the diameter of the Earth.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that can affect radio communications on Earth as well as power grids and navigation signals.
“There have been reports of power grid irregularities and degradation to high-frequency communications and GPS (space-based radio-navigation systems),” the SWPC said.
On Thursday, the SWPC issued its first severe geomagnetic storm watch since January 2005. Check the SWPC website for more information.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Many news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. This is a free story. Thank you to our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. You can see what we cover here.
Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today!
Alternatively, you can donate to support our work here. Thank you for your support!
Copyright 2024 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Leave a Reply