Northern lights visible in the NC skies

It was a colorful display Thursday across the North Carolina skies as a geomagnetic storm triggered northern lights Thursday night in the United States,

Several North Carolina residents started sending WRAL News photos of the phenomenon around 7:25 p.m.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) had issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch. It comes in reaction to an Earth facing coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted from the sun Tuesday evening.

The CME was accompanied by a strong solar flare as seen by NASA”s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

These events spark aurora visible low on our northern horizon and higher in the sky in states from the mid-Atlantic to northern California, according to SWPC forecasters. Those in the green areas in the forecast map below are more likely to see aurora overhead, lower in the sky in white areas and along the northern horizon as far south as the solid green line.

Skygazers are reminded to point their smartphones upward for photos; the devices often can capture auroras that human eyes cannot.

Prior to the light show, many residents have several questions: Will this be a repeat of the G5 event in May? Will we be able to see even more of the aurora in the Carolinas?

“The potential is there, but we wont know until the CME arrives at [the] spacecraft” explained NOAA Space Weather Forecaster Shawn Dahl in a press conference on Wednesday.

Dahl was referring to NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and NOAA’s The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) missions which monitor space weather from L1, a point of gravitational balance between the Earth and Sun.

Instruments aboard these missions monitor changes in the solar wind, measuring particles and their magnetic polarity. That polarity is as important as the strength of the storm in determining how far south the aurora might be visible.

If the polarity matched Earth’s magnetic field, it would repel the particles just as any magnet would.

But if ACE and DSCOVR did find the initial bow shock to have the opposite polarity, the CME could connect with the Earth’s doughnut-shaped magnetic field funneling charged particles deeper into toward the lower latitudes.

Even from that point about 1 million miles from Earth, we only get between 15 and 60 minutes warning of how intense the storm might be, depending on CME speed, before it reaches Earth.

Unlike May’s G5 event, which was fueled by multiple CMEs traveling at different speeds that merged as they arrived at Earth, forecasters didn’t think Thursday’s would be as strong. But forecasters put the chances raising the G4 watch to the G5 levels needed to produce more visibility in our area at about 25%.

That scenario would’ve have push the show deeper south, into the Carolinas.

Geomagnetic storms impact Earth with more than just beautiful aurora. They can impact radio and satellite communications as electric power transmission.

The SWPC warns FEMA along with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation which manages the power grids. This came about 6 hours ahead of the G5 storm in May.

“With all the hurricane (Helene) relief efforts going on and [Hurricane Milton] inbound … we immediately contacted them.”