Watch the skies starting Friday night for what could be a dazzling display of nature — or not, depending on your location and weather conditions.
An unusual solar flare activity means the aurora borealis, or northern lights, could appear in the sky in an arc of colors that may include green, purple and red.
If you are in a place with a lot of bright lights – like a city – it will be difficult to see anything. And then there are other complications, like the weather.
The northeast is likely to be covered with clouds on Friday night. In the Midwest, skies could be clear after a storm system passes through.
With this intensity of solar storm activity, it is possible that the lights will be visible as far north as Alabama and Georgia, where the night sky is expected to be relatively clear.
The southern plains and rocky mountains, however, may have relatively poor viewing conditions.
On the west coast, conditions should remain relatively cloud-free, which could provide good viewing.
Some of the lights may also be visible outside the United States, in places like Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia.
In parts of Britain, there is a good chance the lights will be visible, according to the country’s Met Space Weather Operations Centre.
“With plenty of clear skies in the forecast, there’s a good chance we’ll see the Aurora across the northern half of the UK.” the agency said on social media.
Actually, images of the lights over England shortly before midnight local time began to appear on social media, including photos from London, despite the city’s light pollution.
A tip: If you’re in a clear area, even south of the aurora forecast, take a photo or video with your cell phone.
The camera sensor is more sensitive to the wavelengths produced by the aurora and can produce an image that you cannot see with the naked eye.
Why is this happening?
A severe solar storm is coming.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a rare warning Friday after a solar flare reached Earth.
As nuclear reactions occur in the sun, it typically ejects material from its surface.
Officials said the solar activity could potentially cause power outages or disrupt navigation and communication systems.
The emissions can affect satellites in near-Earth orbit as well as infrastructure on the ground, leading to disruptions in navigation systems, radio communications and even the power grid.
It sounds alarming but don’t worry.
The warning isn’t really directed at members of the public, so just go about your day as you normally would. (Except maybe look at the night sky a little more.)
“For most people here on planet Earth, they won’t need to do anything,” said Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “If everything works as it should, the grid will be stable and they will be able to go about their daily lives.”
When does this happen?
Material ejected from the sun could reach Earth’s atmosphere by Friday afternoon or evening, officials said.
“What we expect in the next couple of days should be more significant than what we’ve seen, certainly so far,” Mike Bettwy, the chief of operations at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said at a news conference Friday.
What flares up?
The Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday night that we were faces an extreme solar storm, level 5;over a level 4 earlier in the day.
The last extreme event occurred in October 2003 and resulted in blackouts in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa, the center said.
The current storm is caused by a cluster of sunspots – dark, cool areas on the solar surface. The cluster erupts and ejects material every six to 12 hours.
“We’re anticipating one shock after another through the weekend,” said Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Katrina Miller and Judson Jones contributed to the report.