Northern Lights Fans! Tonight May be Your Lucky Night

A “severe” geomagnetic solar storm will befall Earth tonight, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Extreme solar activity (solar flares and coronal mass ejections [CMEs]) began Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The event begins on Earth tonight and could ripple through the weekend.

CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth. Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action.

All that sounds mayhem sounds sweet to connoisseurs of aurora borealis.

Space.com calls the northern lights “an atmospheric phenomenon that’s regarded as the Holy Grail of skywatching.”