A massive solar flare erupting from the sun on Tuesday was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. (Source: NASA/SDO) The massive flare that erupted from the sun on Tuesday could bring beautiful displays of the Northern Lights as far south as Colorado late on Thursday night and early Friday morning. Click on the screenshot above to watch a movie of the solar flare captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft.
Aurora forecast. (Source: University of Alaska Geophysical Institute) It was associated with a huge eruption of material called a coronal mass ejection. Now, that material is racing toward Earth and is expected to trigger a strong geomagnetic storm — a disturbance to Earth's protective magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere. It's that kind of disturbance that triggers the Northern Lights. The University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute predicts that auroral activity will be high on Thursday:
Weather permitting, highly active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Inuvik, Yellowknife, Rankin and Igaluit to Juneau, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Sept-Iles, and visible low on the horizon from Seattle, Des Moines, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and Halifax.
The Denver Post is reporting that displays of the aurora could even reach where I live near Boulder, Colorado. "This is very rare, especially for as far south as Denver and Boulder," Joe Kunches, a forecaster with the federal Space Weather Prediction Center, told the Post. There are no guarantees, of course. Clouds could obscure the view, city lights could wash it out, the solar material could arrive earlier or later than forecast, affecting visibility, etc. For the latest updates on what might happen, check the Space Weather Prediction Center here. Happy viewing!
