Here’s How Americans Can See the Northern Lights on New Year’s Eve

It looks like the Sun is in a festive mood: A powerful geomagnetic storm is forecast for the next day, raising the possibility of auroras – the Northern Lights show – on New Year’s Eve.

The Center for Space Weather Forecasts of the National Meteorological Service released information about it geomagnetic hurricane watch for December 31, based on the coronal mass ejection – eruption – that occurred on the surface of the Sun on December 29. The New Year’s Eve storm watch is rated G3 for severe storms. According to the SWPC, severe storms can change the direction of spacecraft and cause problems with GPS and low-frequency radio navigation systems. Auroras are forecast “over many northern states and some of the Midwest below Oregon,” according to the warning. But if you’re further south, don’t let that put you off; space weather experts to say new phone camera technology can pick up lights even when your eyes can’t see them. So, even if the aurora is not expected in your area, it does not hurt to try to photograph it.

Auroras When charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field, they cause gases in our planet’s atmosphere to glow. When solar activity is more extreme, i.e. when our host star ejects material into space in solar flares, it sometimes causes bright auroras surprisingly close to the equator.

The sun is passing 11 year solar cycleat a maximum, space air tends to be denser. There are about 200 G3 geomagnetic storms per solar cycle, and the Sun is now at its maximum, so several significant geomagnetic storms happened this year. Earth felt in May the strongest geomagnetic storm It hit the planet for 20 years, sending auroras across the sky as far away as Florida and Texas.

SWPC as well announced Two strong radio outages due to a pair of flares on the Sun on Monday. The effects of the flares could include signal loss on high-frequency communication bands on Earth’s sun side, the warning noted, although the associated coronal mass ejection “was determined to have no Earth-directed component.”

In addition to the G3 storm watch, there is a G1 (or lesser) storm watch for New Year’s Day, with the possibility of an upgrade to a G2 storm watch. Space weather researchers cannot assess the exact levels of geomagnetic disturbances until charged particles from the Sun are within 1 million miles (1.61 million kilometers) of Earth, or about 30 to 60 minutes after they reach Earth. According to the storm tracking notice, “Both CMEs are not expected to be direct hits, making intensity predictions difficult.”

Auroras are best seen away from prominent light sources with clear skies. In other words, if you’re trying to catch the Earth’s natural light show, it’s best to do so away from the artificial light shows on New Year’s Eve. Catch you all for another dynamic year in 2025 under the auspices of our exploding star.