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Tag: Northern Lights

  • The DC area is in for another geomagnetic storm — which means another opportunity to see the Northern Lights – WTOP News

    The DC area is in for another geomagnetic storm — which means another opportunity to see the Northern Lights – WTOP News

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    For skywatchers and wannabe Aurora (Northern lights) chasers, space weather conditions are currently predicted to be favorable Monday night.

    Monday, July 29, 2024’s sun imaged with a telescope and solar filter. (WTOP/Greg Redfern)

    Here we go again.

    For skywatchers and wannabe Northern Lights chasers, space weather conditions are currently predicted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) to be favorable Monday night.

    The current predicted line of visibility on the northern horizon is in the lower part of Pennsylvania. That is close enough to make it worth the D.C. area taking a look. I expect this forecast will change as the day goes on, since space weather conditions are still developing. SWPC will issue updates as they are warranted.

    Geomagnetic storm watches are out Monday to Wednesday due to a number of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s corona in the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, according to NOAA.

    Solar activity was elevated through the weekend and various events, including solar flares and filament eruptions associated with CMEs, NOAA SWPC said. Some CMEs could arrive Tuesday and into Wednesday. NOAA said the ones that arrived Monday could result in G1 or minor storm levels, but most of the activity will liley take place on Tuesday, when CMEs from Saturday and Sunday arrive.

    “This could lead to G2-G3 levels as indicated by the WSA-Enlil model,” NOAA SWPC said, with more continuing into Wednesday.

    This geomagnetic storm and associated aurora event are not predicted to reach the historic levels, such as the last one on May 10. It’s far more likely that we could experience an event like in March, which involved a similar G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm. NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found online.

    The best bet is to monitor WTOP Weather for sky conditions, and the NOAA, plus other space-related social media sites, including EarthSky.org, space.com and space weather physicist Tamitha Skov’s X for updates. It will be worth taking a look to the north from a dark sky site with a clear horizon. You might be able to detect some color in the sky if aurora are present but they would likely be low on the northern horizon. Wide field binoculars will help your search.

    Use a camera or smartphone that can take exposures of several seconds — including using “night sky” or “low light” settings if your camera has them — of the northern horizon. Steady the camera or use a tripod for best image results. The camera may capture aurora that your eyes did not.

    The D.C. area had several aurora events visible in 2023, including in March and November. And the area is on a roll for 2024, with more coming in all probability.

    I check spaceweather.com every day just as I do my local weather. The site has a daily snapshot of what the space weather in the solar system is going to be like and a current image of the sun.

    Monday’s posting explains what happened on the sun the past few days to cause the current space weather. My image of Monday’s sun shows a lot of sunspots.

    With terrestrial weather being such a factor in the daily lives here in the D.C. region, and frankly the rest of the world, space weather has a direct effect, and can produce a variety of events, including Monday’s geomagnetic storm and the aurora.

    Space weather, like terrestrial weather, is caused by Earth’s interaction with the sun. While giving warmth and energy every day, what many people may not know is that it undergoes an 11-year solar cycle that can affect space weather throughout the solar system.

    The sun is a 4.5-billion-year-old star that humans have been monitoring since the time of Galileo. Currently, humans have a fleet of spacecraft that monitor the sun and space weather 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

    The sun is currently in Solar Cycle 25 and is at Solar Maximum. At Solar Maximum, the sun produces more sunspots and solar events, which produce space weather events like Monday’s level G3 geomagnetic storm. In fact, solar researches believe the sun is already starting Solar Cycle 26.

    The sun had an episode of disturbed behavior centuries ago. On Sept. 1, 1859, the sun experienced a solar storm episode that was observed by solar astronomer Richard Carrington and ended up bearing his name: “The Carrington Event.” This was a watershed event in solar astronomy and the sun’s effects on the Earth, unlike anything that’s happened since.

    If a Carrington-level solar event were to happen today, the impact on modern society’s infrastructure could be potentially catastrophic, especially the electrical grid which powers everything. If you think this is unlikely or “too sci-fi” to be true, I suggest you read the report by the National Academies of Science published in 2008.

    You listen to WTOP for “traffic and weather together on the 8s.” Maybe now you will want to include a check on space weather, too, as part of your daily weather routine.

    Follow Greg Redfern on Facebook, X and his daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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  • Upcoming Fountain Hills dark sky observatory plans to show us the stars

    Upcoming Fountain Hills dark sky observatory plans to show us the stars

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    “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” starts the famous scroll from the movie “Star Wars.” It’s a renowned sci-fi movie line, but it also suggests the fascination humankind has with the stories the universe holds. Soon, Arizona will be a place where some real celestial mysteries will be explored and documented for future generations…

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    Timothy Rawles

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  • The Auroras Should Be Spectacular This Summer, Thanks to Solar Maximum

    The Auroras Should Be Spectacular This Summer, Thanks to Solar Maximum

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    Auroras filled much of the world’s skies for several nights in mid-May as a historic geomagnetic storm coursed 100 kilometers above our heads. Being able to see auroras so deep into the tropics was possibly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but there will almost certainly be more strong geomagnetic storms later this year, giving hope to aurora watchers around the world that more dazzling lights are possible in the near future.

    This is because we’re quickly approaching solar maximum, the peak of our star’s predictable 11-year cycle of activity. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are more common during and just after solar maximum, and it’s these that are responsible for vivid auroras.

    The great aurora show on May 10, 2024, was the result of three CMEs that surged out of the sun’s outer atmosphere and headed toward Earth. A CME is a collection of magnetized plasma ejected from the sun’s exceptionally hot outer atmospheric layer, the corona, as a result of a disruption in the sun’s magnetic field.

    On May 10, each successive CME moved a little faster than the one before it, allowing all three bursts of charged particles to merge before washing over Earth’s atmosphere. The combined energy of three CMEs hitting our planet at once unleashed an aurora show for the ages.

    AR3664 on May 10, 2024.Photograph: NASA/SOHO

    These CMEs were associated with Active Region 3664, a collection of relatively cold and dark sunspots on the sun’s surface that grew more than 15 times larger than the Earth itself. You could see AR3664 without magnification simply by peeking up at the sun through a pair of eclipse glasses.

    It turns out that the enormity of AR3664 was a major contributor to our generational aurora display. Such spots on the solar surface often disrupt the region’s magnetic field, creating an instability and realignment that can force the release of a CME or even a powerful solar flare—a burst of electromagnetic radiation that can cause radio blackouts.

    The surface of the sun rotates every three and a half weeks or so, meaning that sunspots are only visible to Earth for a week or two, depending on where they form on the solar surface.

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    Dennis Mersereau

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  • Large solar storms can knock out electronics and affect the power grid – an electrical engineer explains how

    Large solar storms can knock out electronics and affect the power grid – an electrical engineer explains how

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    David Wallace is an assistant clinical professor of electrical engineering at Mississippi State University.

    The geomagnetic storm that began on May 10, 2024, generated stunning aurora borealis, more commonly known as the northern lights, that could be seen as far south as Mexico. They also generated headaches for farmers whose GPS-guided tractors were idled in the middle of planting season.

    Geomagnetic storms occur when a large bubble of superheated gas called plasma is ejected from the surface of the Sun and hits the Earth. This bubble is known as a coronal mass ejection. The plasma of a coronal mass ejection consists of a cloud of protons and electrons, which are electrically charged particles. When these particles reach the Earth, they interact with the magnetic field that surrounds the planet. This interaction causes the magnetic field to distort and weaken, which in turn leads to the strange behavior of the aurora borealis and other natural phenomena.

    The May 2024 storm, rated G5 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 1-to-5 Geomagnetic Storms scale, disrupted GPS communications enough to throw off tractor guidance, which requires centimeter-level precision. Stronger storms would have much more serious consequences. As an electrical engineer who specializes in the power grid, I study how geomagnetic storms also threaten to cause power and internet outages and how to protect against that.

    Geomagnetic storms

    Stronger solar storms have happened, and one caused havoc with one of the earliest electronic technologies. On Sept. 1 and 2, 1859, telegraph systems around the world failed catastrophically. The operators of the telegraphs reported receiving electrical shocks, telegraph paper catching fire and being able to operate equipment with batteries disconnected. During the evenings, the aurora borealis could be seen as far south as Colombia. Typically, these lights are only visible at higher latitudes, in northern Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia.

    What the world experienced that day, now known as the Carrington Event, was the largest recorded account of a geomagnetic storm, far stronger than the May 2024 storm.

    Geomagnetic storms have been recorded since the early 19th century, and scientific data from Antarctic ice core samples has shown evidence of an even more massive geomagnetic storm that occurred around A.D. 774, known as the Miyake Event. That solar flare produced the largest and fastest rise in carbon-14 ever recorded. Geomagnetic storms trigger high amounts of cosmic rays in Earth’s upper atmosphere, which in turn produce carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon.

    A geomagnetic storm 60% smaller than the Miyake Event occurred around A.D. 993. Ice core samples have shown evidence that large-scale geomagnetic storms with similar intensities as the Miyake and Carrington events occur at an average rate of once every 500 years.

    Scientists were able to estimate the strength of the Carrington Event based on the fluctuations of Earth’s magnetic field as recorded by observatories at the time. There was no way to measure the magnetic fluctuation of the Miyake Event. Instead, scientists measured the increase in carbon-14 in tree rings from that time period. The Miyake Event produced a 12% increase in carbon-14. By comparison, the Carrington Event produced less than a 1% increase in carbon-14, so the Miyake Event likely dwarfed the G5 Carrington Event.

    Knocking out power

    Today, a geomagnetic storm of the same intensity as the Carrington Event would affect far more than telegraph wires and could be catastrophic. With the ever-growing dependency on electricity and emerging technology, any disruption could lead to trillions of dollars of monetary loss and risk to life dependent on the systems. The storm would affect a majority of the electrical systems that people use every day.

    Geomagnetic storms generate induced currents, which flow through the electrical grid. The geomagnetically induced currents, which can be in excess of 100 amperes, flow into the electrical components connected to the grid, such as transformers, relays and sensors. One hundred amperes is equivalent to the electrical service provided to many households. Currents this size can cause internal damage in the components, leading to large scale power outages.

    A geomagnetic storm three times smaller than the Carrington Event occurred in Quebec, Canada, in March 1989. The storm caused the Hydro-Quebec electrical grid to collapse. During the storm, the high magnetically induced currents damaged a transformer in New Jersey and tripped the grid’s circuit breakers. In this case, the outage led to 5 million people being without power for nine hours.

    Breaking connections

    In addition to electrical failures, communications would be disrupted on a worldwide scale. Internet service providers could go down, which in turn would take out the ability of different systems to communicate with each other. High-frequency communication systems such as ground-to-air, shortwave and ship-to-shore radio would be disrupted. Satellites in orbit around the Earth could be damaged by induced currents from the geomagnetic storm burning out their circuit boards. This would lead to disruptions in satellite-based telephone, internet, radio and television.

    Also, as geomagnetic storms hit the Earth, the increase in solar activity causes the atmosphere to expand outward. This expansion changes the density of the atmosphere where satellites are orbiting. Higher density atmosphere creates drag on a satellite, which slows it down. And if it isn’t maneuvered to a higher orbit, it can fall back to Earth.

    One other area of disruption that would potentially affect everyday life is navigation systems. Virtually every mode of transportation, from cars to airplanes, use GPS for navigation and tracking. Even handheld devices such as cell phones, smart watches and tracking tags rely on GPS signals sent from satellites. Military systems are heavily dependent on GPS for coordination. Other military detection systems such as over-the-horizon radar and submarine detection systems could be disrupted, which would hamper national defense.

    In terms of the internet, a geomagnetic storm on the scale of the Carrington Event could produce geomagnetically induced currents in the submarine and terrestrial cables that form the backbone of the internet as well as the data centers that store and process everything from email and text messages to scientific data sets and artificial intelligence tools. This would potentially disrupt the entire network and prevent the servers from connecting to each other.

    Just a matter of time

    It is only a matter of time before the Earth is hit by another big geomagnetic storm. A Carrington Event-size storm would be extremely damaging to the electrical and communication systems worldwide with outages lasting into the weeks. If the storm is the size of the Miyake Event, the results would be catastrophic for the world, with potential outages lasting months if not longer. Even with space weather warnings from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the world would have only a few minutes to a few hours notice.

    I believe it is critical to continue researching ways to protect electrical systems against the effects of geomagnetic storms, for example by installing devices that can shield vulnerable equipment like transformers and by developing strategies for adjusting grid loads when solar storms are about to hit. In short, it’s important to work now to minimize the disruptions from the next Carrington Event.

    This is an updated version of an article originally published on The Conversation on March 18, 2022, and was republished under a Creative Commons License. It was updated to include news of the May 2024 solar storm.

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  • Nature’s Kaleidoscope | Show Me Nature Photography

    Nature’s Kaleidoscope | Show Me Nature Photography

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    Today’s post features a few images I captured over the weekend, when Missouri experienced the rare Northern Lights (aka, Aurora Borealis).

    I unexpectedly was able to remove one item from my “Bucket List” this weekend. I was able to view and photograph the amazing Northern Lights!

    Here are a few of my favorite images:

    My very first view of the beautiful lights:

    Northern Lights in MIssouri

    The above image was captured upon my arrival at my shooting location … West Lake Christian Church, in Laurie, MO. After capturing this image, I unloaded my camera and tripod, set up my rig, and began shooting:

    Northern Lights in MIssouriNorthern Lights in MIssouri

    Northern Lights in MIssouriNorthern Lights in MIssouri

    Northern Lights in MIssouriNorthern Lights in MIssouri

    I was so glad that I had taken that initial “grab shot” with my phone … it didn’t take long for the colors to change from a myriad of colors, to a predominantly red color. Not that red is bad, but I really loved the rainbow of colors when I first arrived! And by the way, I decided not to remove this item from my “Bucket List”. Instead, I’m using it as “warmup” for the really big show I’m planning in the true Northland!

    Photographic Equipment Used:

    • The first image was captured “automatically”, via my cell phone; all others shot via DSLR
    • Canon 5D Mark 3 camera body
    • Canon 28-135mm IS lens
    • Bogen 3021 tripod, with ballhead
    • ISO 800
    • Aperture f/5.6
    • Shutter 11 sec. to 14 sec.

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    James Braswell

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  • Why do the colors of the northern lights change?

    Why do the colors of the northern lights change?

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    (FOX40.COM) — Residents in lower latitudes across the world were able to get a rare sighting of the northern lights on recent nights, which featured an array of colors across the night skies.

    The colors of the aurora borealis are usually green but could appear as other colors including red, blue, pink and purple, according to which compounds from the sun are interacting with compounds on Earth and how high up this is happening in the atmosphere, according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.

    People across the world captured the astronomical light show as the lights began appearing starting on Friday night and continuing through the weekend.

    The aurora borealis, as the lights are also called, were caused by a rare G5 solar storm, which hasn’t occurred since October 2003.

    The different aurora colors 

    The color of the aurora is determined by altitude and atmospheric compounds, according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. 

    Nitrogen and oxygen are atmospheric compounds that help determine the color and could be found in different altitudes, the NOAA said. 

    “When charged particles from the sun enter our atmosphere, they interact with those compounds, and the aurora is the visible result,” NOAA officials said in a Facebook post. “Depending on which compounds are being excited by the Sun’s charged particles, different colors will result.” 

    The colors that appear are the result of whether it is oxygen or nitrogen and how much of the sun’s particles are interacting with these at once, according to NOAA.

    The greenish-yellow light is the most familiar color of the aurora and it comes from oxygen, which also emits red light. Nitrogen typically generates a blue light. 

    Molecules from oxygen and nitrogen can give off an ultraviolent light, which can only be detected by special cameras on satellites, NOAA said. 

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    Jeremiah Martinez

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  • The Northern Lights May Be Visible Again on Sunday Night

    The Northern Lights May Be Visible Again on Sunday Night

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    The aurora borealis was once again be visible on Saturday night from some places in the U.S., but the storm wasn’t as intense, so nowhere near as many people could view it as on Friday night.

    In some locations, the color or colors may appear very faint to the naked eye, but show up better through your smartphone camera. And depending on where you are, you will also need to know where in the sky to look — the further south you are, it may only appear as a colored band on, or a little above the northern horizon.

    Explains the Washington Post:

    Current NOAA models show geomagnetic storm activity will initially be less intense Saturday night. By the pre-dawn hours Sunday, however, storm activity may increase markedly, offering early risers a memorable display of the northern lights, especially after around 4 a.m. Eastern. The exact timing of the increase in storminess is very uncertain, though.

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    Chas Danner

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  • ‘Extreme’ geomagnetic storm may bless us with more aurora displays tonight and tomorrow

    ‘Extreme’ geomagnetic storm may bless us with more aurora displays tonight and tomorrow

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    The strongest geomagnetic storm in 20 years made the colorful northern lights, or aurora borealis, visible Friday night across the US, even in areas that are normally too far south to see them. And the show may not be over. Tonight may offer another chance to catch the aurora if you have clear skies, according to the NOAA, and Sunday could bring yet more displays reaching as far as Alabama.

    The NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said on Saturday that the sun has continued to produce powerful solar flares. That’s on top of previously observed coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or explosions of magnetized plasma, that won’t reach Earth until tomorrow. The agency has been monitoring a particularly active sunspot cluster since Wednesday, and confirmed yesterday that it had observed G5 conditions — the level designated “extreme” — which haven’t been seen since October 2003. In a press release on Friday, Clinton Wallace, Director, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said the current storm is “an unusual and potentially historic event.”

    Geomagnetic storms happen when outbursts from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetosphere. While it all has kind of a scary ring to it, people on the ground don’t really have anything to worry about. As NASA explained on X, “Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere” to physically affect us. These storms can mess with our technology, though, and have been known to disrupt communications, GPS, satellite operations and even the power grid.

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    Cheyenne MacDonald

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  • Your photos of the northern lights in Minnesota: May 10, 2024

    Your photos of the northern lights in Minnesota: May 10, 2024

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    Minnesotans were delighted by an otherworldly light show Friday night that was on a level the state hadn’t seen in nearly two decades.

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    Stephen Swanson

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  • Watch: Northern lights seen from FOX 8 tower cam

    Watch: Northern lights seen from FOX 8 tower cam

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    CLEVELAND (WJW) — Residents across Northeast Ohio got a stunning show as an aurora, or “northern lights” were visible Friday night. It’s a weather phenomenon that’s exceedingly rare for this part of the world.

    • Credit: John Sabol
    • Northern Lights
      Credit: John Sabol
    • Northern Lights
      Credit: John Sabol
    • Northern Lights
      Credit: John Sabol

    For the first time since 2005, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch, after spotting five coronal mass ejections pointed at Earth, expected to arrive by midday Friday, May 10, and stay through Sunday, May 12.

    It’s an “unusual event,” the NOAA noted.

    As for whether northern lights would be visible from Northeast Ohio on Friday night, clear skies cooperated giving many a great view.

    Sunset on Friday, May 10, was just after 8:30 p.m. But Jay Reynolds, a research astronomer at Cleveland State University, said the likely best time to see an aurora would have been at about 2 a.m. on Saturday.

    “Been a long time since we’ve had anything like this,” he said. “The last true aurora which was easily visible to the naked eye was in 2012 and lasted 20 minutes. Yes, we’ve seen some glowing activity in recent years but nothing like this.”

    “I would not promise anything. We can predict snow totals better than we can predict auroras — but these look promising.”

    The last time Reynolds predicted a visible aurora was “guaranteed” was in 2003, he said.

    “A friend called me while driving on the Shoreway. He could not believe was he was seeing. Even with the Shoreway lights, he could see them plain as day,” he said. “I was in Spencer Lake, and you could see the first signs of aurora as the sun was not even quite down yet. Incredible! So powerful — reds, greens, blues, you name it. … What a day.”

    Coronal mass ejections are scorching blasts of magnetized plasma from the sun’s corona which can cause electromagnetic disruptions on Earth, creating ribbons of multi-colored light that dance in the skies.

    Several strong solar flares have been seen over the past few days from a sunspot cluster that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, according to the NOAA.

    (Courtesy of Jay Reynolds)

    That cluster is so big you can see it without a telescope, said Reynolds. Just make sure you’re wearing your solar eclipse glasses; don’t look directly at the sun without proper protection.

    There have only been three other “severe” geomagnetic storms seen in this solar cycle, which started in December 2019. The last “extreme” storm on Halloween in 2003 knocked out power in Sweden and South Africa, according to the NOAA.

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    Justin Dennis

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  • Can you see the northern lights in Arizona tonight? Forecast explained

    Can you see the northern lights in Arizona tonight? Forecast explained

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    Local skywatchers might see a rare astronomical phenomenon light up the nighttime skies over Arizona this evening and early tomorrow. An intense geomagnetic storm triggered by coronal mass ejections and solar flares will impact the Earth on Friday night into Saturday morning, resulting in the northern lights — also known as the aurora borealis — becoming visible across most of the U.S. There’s a slight chance the astronomical occurrence could also be seen in parts of Arizona…

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    Benjamin Leatherman

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  • The Northern Lights Could Be Visible Across the US Thanks to a Rare Solar Storm

    The Northern Lights Could Be Visible Across the US Thanks to a Rare Solar Storm

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    Three rapid bursts of charged particles that erupted toward Earth from the sun’s burning-hot outer atmosphere on Wednesday could lead to stunning auroras across a wide swath of the US and a colorful hue as far south as Florida to start the weekend.

    Traveling at more than 1.5 million miles per hour, the trio of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have merged into one pulse of plasma and magnetic field during the 60-hour trip from the sun’s atmosphere toward our own.

    Tracking these developments, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a “severe geomagnetic storm watch” in advance of its arrival. This was the first such alert issued by the agency in nearly 20 years.

    Visible auroras are possible across much of the United States as a result of this expected storm. An event of this magnitude is also likely to cause disruptions to radios, satellites, and possibly even some power grids, though nothing most people should be concerned about.

    This weekend’s aurora potential started with a sunspot more than 10 times larger than Earth. It’s a sunspot so large, in fact, that it’s visible to the unmagnified eye through a leftover pair of eclipse glasses.

    Solar flares and CMEs are often associated with sunspots. Larger and more intense spots can lead to more frequent and more intense releases of matter from the sun’s atmosphere.

    Satellites dedicated to tracking solar activity detected the first CME rushing out of the sun’s corona around 9:00 am EDT on May 8. A second, smaller CME erupted from the same region a few hours later, followed by another burst of charged matter about eight hours after that.

    All three CMEs erupted with different intensities and speeds. The first CME was the largest and slowest of the trio, which allowed the second, faster CME to collide and merge into the first. The third CME of the bunch would eventually catch up as well, allowing all three surges of charged particles to reach Earth in a single wave about 60 hours after ejecting from the sun.

    The combined intensity of the three CMEs washing over Earth’s atmosphere at once is the driving force behind the severe geomagnetic storm.

    If everything stays on track, a memorable series of auroras could grace the skies over much of the United States during the overnight hours Friday into early Saturday morning.

    The timing of the event places the likely peak disruption in the middle of the night across the US, providing a great viewing opportunity for most of the country if the event remains on course.

    A geomagnetic storm of this intensity could make the aurora visible overhead from Seattle to Chicago to New York and Washington, DC, with auroras possible as far south as Oklahoma City and Raleigh, North Carolina. Colors may be visible on the northern horizon as far south as northern Florida.

    Folks across Europe and Asia may also see the auroras if the storm arrives during their nighttime hours. During the peak of an event of this magnitude, the northern lights could dance overhead around London, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow.

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    Dennis Mersereau

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  • Can Cannabis Enhance The Northern Lights

    Can Cannabis Enhance The Northern Lights

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    The Northern Lights are a visual treat for your eyes and mind – can marijuana make it a bit better?

    It isn’t common for them to have a widespread show for millions in Canada and the US.  The mesmerizing visuals are captivating…but can cannabis enhance the Northern Lights? NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center shared during the last solar activity of this magnitude, you can could see the lights as far south as Alabama and northern California.  Viewers have a chance on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights.

    RELATED: Music Is A Turn On Like Sex And Marijuana

    Northern lights, or the aurora borealis, are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph).  Earth’s magnetic field protects us but gives us a show.  Our magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles (yes, there are Southern Lights).  The process transforms into a cinematic atmospheric phenomenon that dazzles and fascinates scientists and skywatchers alike.

    Marijuana has a rich history of enhancing music, movies and other visual and audio activities.  So it would make watching the rare occasion even better.  But dosage and timing are key – and maybe add some music to lose yourself in the experience.

    The central nervous system is activated when we are stimulated with music and visuals. Cannabinoid receptors are a prominent receptors. With cannabis, CB1 receptors become hyperactive, affecting sensation. It also improves current attention, preventing memory seeking with concentrates your brain on the art, making it appear more fresh and intriguing. It is no wonder there is a strain named after the Northern lights.

    RELATED: Marijuana And The Creative/Programmer Set

    Considering how rare you have the chance to see the Northern Lights?  Why not go all out.  And sciences seems to indicate found people seemed to process sensations more effectively when high.  It could make for a stronger memory of the experience. 

     

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    Anthony Washington

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  • Where can I see Northern Lights in Minnesota this Friday night?

    Where can I see Northern Lights in Minnesota this Friday night?

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    NEXT Weather: 7 a.m. forecast from May 10, 2024


    NEXT Weather: 7 a.m. forecast from May 10, 2024

    02:41

    MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesotans will have a good shot at spotting the Northern Lights on Friday night, experts predict. The National Weather Service says the aurora borealis could be visible as far south as Alabama.

    Space weather forecasters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Friday evening. The National Weather Service notes that watches at this level are very rare.

    WCCO meteorologist Chris Shaffer says this is one of the biggest solar flares the area has seen since 2005.

    “It’s definitely worth your time tomorrow night, especially if you’re hanging out for the fishing opener, say, up north,” Shaffer said. 

    gnkwztwwsaaaskt.jpg

    WCCO


    Skies should be clear Friday night in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, making for even better viewing. For an optimal viewing experience, move far from the light pollution of higher-populated areas and have a clear view to the north.

    If you don’t catch the Northern Lights on Friday, the NWS says conditions could continue through the weekend. However, WCCO meteorologist Mike Augustyniak notes that aurora forecasts are about as reliable as weather forecasts in the 1950s.

    The aurora borealis produces neon green waves in the night sky when electrons from space collide with atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere of Earth, according to NASA. The result is similar to when electrons collide with neon gas to create bright lightbulbs.

    The auroras come from solar wind from the sun. Even when these winds are calm, there are auroras at some places on Earth, but they may be obstructed by clouds or sunlight, according to the institute.  

    Strong solar storms can impact life in space, but also here on Earth. GPS and communications satellites, and even the power grid can be interrupted. 

    Riley Moser

    Riley Moser is a digital line producer at wcco.com. At WCCO, she often covers breaking news and feature stories. In 2022, Riley received an honorable mention in sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association.

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    Riley Moser

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  • NOAA warns X-class solar flare could hit today, with smaller storms during the week. Here’s what to know.

    NOAA warns X-class solar flare could hit today, with smaller storms during the week. Here’s what to know.

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    The strongest category of solar flares, known to potentially cause worldwide transmission problems and blackouts, could be emitted this week, scientists say. On Sunday, radio blackouts were already detected, though scientists did not say where.

    The warning comes from scientists from both the U.S. and Russia. The latter, from Moscow’s Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics, said on Sunday that they had observed three solar flares that day and that they believed X-class flares are possible on Monday, according to Reuters. 

    X-class flares are the biggest category of solar flare activity, and are essentially “explosions on the surface of the sun ranging from minutes to hours in length,” according to NASA, which calls X-class flares “the real juggernauts.” 

    “Large flares can release enough energy to power the entire United States for a million years,” NASA says, adding that the most powerful X-class flare ever recorded was in 2003. That event “was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it,” NASA says. 

    “A powerful X-class flare like that can create long-lasting radiation storms, which can harm satellites, and even give airline passengers flying near the poles small radiation doses,” said the agency. “X flares also have the potential to create global transmission problems and worldwide blackouts.”

    Unlike geomagnetic storms, which are known for causing electrical power outages and driving intense viewings of the northern lights, solar flares directly affect Earth’s radio communications and release energetic particles into space, the European Space Agency says. Strong flares affect the ionosphere, which is the layer of the atmosphere that conducts electricity. The ionosphere is the atmospheric level that interacts with radio waves, and such impacts cause radio signals to “become degraded or completely absorbed,” NASA says, resulting in a radio blackout. High-frequency radio between 3 and 30 megahertz — such as GPS — is primarily what’s affected.

    NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has also said in its latest forecast that there is a “chance” of a strong X-class event on Monday or Tuesday, with another “slight chance” of them appearing on Wednesday. The events on Monday or Tuesday could be an R3 on its radio blackout scale of R1-R5, NOAA said, meaning they have the potential to cause a “wide area blackout of HF radio communication” with a loss of radio contact for roughly an hour in some parts of Earth. 

    Radio blackouts have already been observed within the past 24 hours, NOAA said in its Monday forecast. There’s at least a 50% chance for smaller radio blackouts through Wednesday, the agency said, with a 25% chance for the R3 blackout on Monday and Tuesday, a likelihood that decreases to 15% on Wednesday. 

    Are solar flares dangerous? 

    Just a few weeks ago, fears of an “internet apocalypse” that could happen within the decade due to activity on the sun went viral. The term seems to have come from a  2021 paper about solar storm impacts, in which a researcher described a “solar superstorm” that could cause global internet outages for months. 

    While extreme geomagnetic storms can cause blackouts and grid systems to collapse, such events are only expected to happen once every 500 years. The last time such an event happened was 164 years ago.

    NASA explains that solar flares become “bigger and more common” every 11 years, when the sun reaches its maximum activity in its cycle. This cycle has “ramped up much faster” than what scientists originally predicted, but it’s still expected to be an “average” cycle overall compared. 

    Most solar flares aren’t dangerous to humans on Earth.  

    “Earth’s atmosphere absorbs most of the Sun’s intense radiation, so flares are not directly harmful to humans on the ground,” NASA says. “However, the radiation from a flare can be harmful to astronauts outside of Earth’s atmosphere, and they can affect the technology we rely on.”

    Solar flares are ranked from A-class, which are essentially “background levels,” to X, which are the strongest flares, with the rankings of B, C and M in between. Each of those classification levels represents a 10-fold increase in energy output, NASA says, meaning that an X-class flare, for example, is 10 times stronger than an M. Each of those classes is then broken down to a number, from 1 to 9. 

    C-class and weaker flares don’t noticeably affect the planet, while strong flares — those rated at an M5 or higher — can impact technology as it affects the planet’s ionosphere, which is used by navigation and GPS. If the light from the flare hits Earth, it can also cause electrical surges or light flashes in the ionosphere that creates radio signal blackouts that last, in the worst case, up to “hours at a time,” NASA says, which could impact radios used for emergency communications. 

    Li Cohen


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    Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • NASA captured an image of a “giant space pumpkin.” Here’s the science behind the “smiling” sun.

    NASA captured an image of a “giant space pumpkin.” Here’s the science behind the “smiling” sun.

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    This year’s Halloween spirit was out of this world. Ahead of the costume and candy-filled celebration, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the sun “smiling” – an image that acclaimed cosmologist compared to a “giant space pumpkin.” 

    The image, which shows a glowing sun with two black holes on top of another crescent-shaped “smile,” was captured on October 26. 

    “Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space,” NASA tweeted. 

    The adorable image of the sun was certainly a treat, but it came with tricks as well. The coronal hole trio prompted a minor geomagnetic storm watch on Saturday, with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center warning that the holes were anticipated to “enhance and disturb the solar wind environment and lead to unsettled conditions.” 

    Coronal holes, according to NASA, are areas of the sun that appear dark because they are cooler and less dense than the surrounding regions and have open magnetic fields. These characteristics allow “streams of relatively fast solar wind” to escape more easily. The holes can develop at any time and location on the sun and the winds can cause geomagnetic storms, ranked on a scale from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme), which have the power to disrupt power and other systems on Earth while also impacting spacecraft operations.

    Even minor storms can cause “weak power grid fluctuations,” according to the center, and impact satellite operations and migratory animals. These storms also cause the northern lights to become more visible further south. 

    In the most extreme storm, some grid systems can experience “complete collapse” and an aurora can be seen as far south as Florida and southern Texas. 

    The “unsettled conditions” were expected to extend through Wednesday, the center said last week. As of Monday, however, no geomagnetic storms or “significant transient or recurrent solar wind features” are expected. On Sunday, the center said there have been “no geomagnetic storms” in the past week. 

    The sun put on a similar Halloween-esque face in 2014, when NASA captured images of the sun looking like an eerie jack-o-lantern. The somewhat spine-tingling glow that was seen coming out of the sun were caused by areas that were emitting more light and energy, NASA said at the time. 

    halloweensun20142k.jpg
    This image shows the sun shining like a jack-o-lantern. Image taken on Oct. 8, 2014.

    NASA/SDO


    Li Cohen


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    Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending reporter for CBS News, focusing on social justice issues.

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