BOSTON-De northern lights have performed a show in 2024. The strongest solar storm in 21 years in May cause the northern lights and on Thursday evening, the stunning colours were again visible in much of the world, even with the naked eye United States.
Did you miss it to get the spectacular display? Don’t worry, one expert says the conditions that led to the recent burst of Northern Lights activity will continue for many months to come.
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Will we see the Northern Lights again?
Shawn Dahl, a forecast coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, told CBS Boston executive weather producer Terry Eliasen that the northern lights have been so intense lately because of where the sun is in its 11-year existence. solar cycle. Dahl said that “we are in the middle of solar maximum.”
‘What that means is that the sun is now a twisted mass of strong magnetic fields, and some of them are so localized and intense that they reveal themselves as this groups of sunspots‘ he said. “That’s the source of some of the space weather storms that we’re looking for and predicting.”
Dahl said this solar cycle has been much more active than originally expected by an international panel of scientific experts. And this increased activity won’t slow down anytime soon.
“We’re going to be out and about for the rest of this year, next year and even into 2026 before things go back to solar minimum,” Dahl said.
The Northern Lights, explained
What caused the most recent outburst of the Northern Lights? Dahl said a “pretty significant” coronal mass ejection from the Sun hit Earth on Thursday.
“It arrived with a magnetic force that is about six times greater than the normal background level that is out there in space,” he said.
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The sun’s electrons interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and collide with various molecules in our atmosphere.
“And because of those interactions, light is eventually released. And that light is what we see as the Northern Lights or the aurora,” Dahl said.
“Concerning” solar storm
Dahl said CMEs at Thursday’s levels are “concerning” because they could temporarily disrupt radio and power signals. Part of its job is to provide advance notice to the satellite community, the North American power grid, the aviation industry and GPS users.
There were even concerns that the solar storm would disrupt the response Hurricane Miltonhe said.
“With all hurricane relief At this point, we were concerned and communicated with FEMA and even the White House Situation Room about the potential of this storm,” he said.
The Northern Lights are unlikely to put on a similar display on Friday as forecasters say the geomagnetic storm is now subsiding.
