The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis were visible in Seattle and across much of the United States on May 10 due to a large solar storm.
Photo by Patrick Robinson
The Northern Lights truly came to town on May 10 and overnight into May 11 as thousands took advantage of warm evening temperatures to wait outside for what turned into an astounding display of green, purple and red curtains appeared in the sky.
Perhaps not to the naked eye however as the ambient light from the city keep the true dark sky from providing adequate background contrast. But for cameras, especially modern camera phones with longer exposures the color became spectacular.
The phenomena otherwise known as the Aurora Borealis appears as bright shifting curtains of colored lights in the night sky A Coronal Mass Ejection or CME which is a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona a few days ago caused charged particles to head toward Earth at 500 miles a second. Once near earth they interacted with the magnetic field of our planet resulting in a visual display.
The effects on May 10 were visibla as far south as Panama City Florida.
The intensity of the “solar storm” and its effect on earth is stated as a”KP index”.
The National Oceanic and Atmosspheric Administration (NOAA) site states:
“The K-index, and by extension the Planetary K-index, are used to characterize the magnitude of geomagnetic storms. Kp is an excellent indicator of disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field and is used by SWPC to decide whether geomagnetic alerts and warnings need to be issued for users who are affected by these disturbances.
The principal users affected by geomagnetic storms are the electrical power grid, spacecraft operations, users of radio signals that reflect off of or pass through the ionosphere, and observers of the aurora.”
A similar level of effects are predicted for May 11.
Learn more at https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index
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