A massive geomagnetic storm could have brought a rare sight to the U.S. — the northern lights — but it did not have the results that some stargazers had hoped.
It had been suggested that the northern lights could have been seen as far south as Alabama, The Hill reported.
But that wasn’t the case.
The northern lights are visible when particles produced from coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, combine with oxygen and nitrogen.
A CME is an explosion of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun.
The CME hit the earth at 10:37 a.m. EDT Sunday, according to Space.com. It was the strongest solar storm since 2017 and rated as a G4 on a scale running from G1 to G5.
The sun’s magnetic fields flip, making the north pole the south pole and vice versa, every 11 years, and we’re in a period called the solar maximum when the solar activity is at its most active, The Associated Press reported.
There can be several geomagnetic storms each year during that period. When we see a solar minimum, there may be years between storms, the AP reported.
Physicist Tamitha Skov wrote Sunday night on social media, “Might this be a #solarstorm fizzle?” explaining that the event would need a southward magnetic field to be seen in areas where they aren’t typically visible.
Might this be a #solarstorm fizzle? Although this storm will continue for hours yet, whether it will contain southward magnetic field is the key for big #aurora shows. At Solar Orbiter (see the figure below), the storm has a weak "South-East-North" configuration, meaning the axis… https://t.co/wrIw6nMrsF pic.twitter.com/0jNNUb26du
— Dr. Tamitha Skov (@TamithaSkov) March 24, 2024
The other issue was the timing of the storm, which started in mid-morning instead of later in the day, according to Space.com.
As of Monday morning, the effects of the CME were weakening, CBS News reported, but solar wind speeds were still elevated, so NOAA extended the moderate storm warning. A moderate storm, categorized as a G2, can impact some power systems and bring the northern lights as far south as New York and Idaho. It could also impact some flight ground control operations.
If you want to see the northern lights but aren’t lucky enough to live in an area to experience them live, you can watch them virtually. The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will have its camera running from 8:20 PM AKDT Monday to 7:26 a.m. AKDT Tuesday or 12:20 a.m. EDT Tuesday to 11:26 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
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