![]() ![]() It is good to note that the lights can take on various shapes, movements, colours and brightness. Whether you want to believe in the myths behind them or the science, it doesn't take away from the incredible beauty of this light show. The result: glowing emissions that take the shape of dancing lights in our skies. Once these particles touch the Earth's atmosphere, it creates a reaction. These solar winds take around 40 hours to reach Earth. The flares then send blasts of charged particles towards our planet. These happen about 150 million kilometres away from Earth. The aurora borealis, or northern lights, are created by giant flares from the sun, or solar storms. The Romans also believed the northern lights announced a new day and thus Aurora was the Roman goddess of dawn.īut what are northern lights in reality? We expand more on that below.įor northern lights tours in Iceland, Norway and Lapland, browse these Nordic aurora packages ![]() ![]() She would appear in the early morning sky to alert her sisters to the new day. The Greeks thought that Aurora was the sister of the sun and the moon. The ancient Greeks and the Romans had many myths associated with the auroras. In the New London area, skies start mostly clear and transition to cloudy, while in central Connecticut and the southern Litchfield area, there's a partly to mostly cloudy forecast for Friday evening.The sightings of these multi-coloured lights in the night sky go back thousands of years. The National Weather Services shows a similar cloudy forecast for the Fairfield County area and the New Haven area. On Friday, the Kp index stays between two and three, posing a less likely chance to see the lights in action.Ĭlouds would block any potential sight of the aurora, and the National Weather Service reports that skies in the Hartford area will be partly to mostly cloudy this evening. To further increase the chances of seeing the Northern Lights, NPR notes that viewers should go to a higher elevation if possible and find a spot that has little light pollution. and 1 a.m., NBC Boston reports, which offers a greater chance of seeing the spectacle. ![]() On Thursday, the Kp index may reach as high as seven between 10 p.m. A Kp of five or higher - along with a location closer to the poles - poses a greater chance of seeing the Northern Lights, NBC Boston notes. This disturbance level is measured by a Kp index, NBC Boston reports, which ranges from zero to nine and grades the amount of geomagnetic activity in a three-hour period. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center issued the geomagnetic storm watch from Wednesday through Friday, with the strongest storm watch issued for Thursday.Īccording to NBC Boston, seeing the Northern Lights in New England depends on the “degree of disturbance of the earth's magnetic field” at the time of the geomagnetic activity. Details below: /OebQXDr1oU- Space Weather Watch AugHow long will the aurora borealis be visible this week? The map shows the southern extend of the aurora borealis starts in the Seattle area and traces through the Midwest, over Chicago and up over New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.ĪURORA FORECAST: Tonight's aurora forecast for the potentially impending moderate/strong geomagnetic storm shows generally cloudy conditions over the Northeast and better than average conditions for parts of Michigan, the Rocky Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest. Space weather Twitter account Space Weather Watch published a map outlining the locations the Northern Lights could be seen from. On Friday night, the storm level is G2, according to NOAA, which poses a moderate storm level. Bill Murtagh, the program coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told the Washington Post that the G3-level storm “does bring the northern lights down into the United States.” These storms are graded based on strength, and on Thursday night, the storm is rated as a strong G3. This spurs “coronal mass ejections,” which project “plasma and pieces of the Sun's magnetic field into the atmosphere.” Geomagnetic storms, according to NPR, are when a coronal hole - which are the spots that look black on the Sun - elicits high winds. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch from Wednesday through Friday. What makes the Northern Lights visible in New England? ![]()
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