Strong northern lights caused by sun storm expected tonight

Particles from geo-magnetic eruptions on the sun will strike the earth at unfathomable speeds today.

That may sound scary, but in reality it means there is a very high likelihood the northern lights will be out in full force tonight.

Malhar Kendurkar, the President of the Prince George Astronomical Society, explained violent solar flares are causing coronal mass ejections which are firing magnetically charged particles into space, and they are on their way to us.

“When the sun is producing the solar flares, sometimes we get lucky and they hit our planet’s magnetosphere,” he explained, saying northern lights happen tonight “When those charged particles hit our magnetosphere at a very high velocity – 36,000 – 56,000 kilometers per second.”

In simpler terms, he said “If you have not seen the northern lights before, tonight is the night.”

“Right now they are hitting the north pole, we are lucky for that. We will be able to see it from the northern hemisphere tonight and tomorrow night,” Kendurkar explained.

The solar storm is so strong that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a severe solar storm warning for the first time in 19 years.

The solar flares began on May 8th, the NOAA says additional flares could keep the storm going through the weekend.

Because of the short notice, Kendurkar said the Prince George observatory will not be open to the public tonight but people are more than welcome to set up shop in their parking lot, which is free of light pollution.

“The forecast for the northern lights looks really red, it is getting intense,” he said, excitedly. “It is supposed to go up to Kp 8.2 which is just – it will be an incredible show. I am really looking forward to it, it will be worthwhile to stay up late tonight and see those northern lights.”

The planetary K index, or Kp, which measures the strength and reach of the northern lights, sits on a 0-9 scale.

According to the NOAA, “For Kp in the range 8 to 9, the aurora will move even further towards the equator and it will become very bright and very active. These are the events that create the best aurora and the extended auroral oval will be observable by the most people. At these levels, aurora may be seen directly overhead from the northern states of the USA.”