Aurora borealis tonight Northern Lights: Aurora borealis tonight: Timing, locations to witness northern lights. Check full list of states where residents can catch glimpse on Sunday
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has designated a window between 10pm and 2am to witness the Aurora borealis, or northern lights, tonight.
For thousands of years, people have observed and been inspired by beautiful images of strings of light dancing across the dark night sky. Today we call these lights aurora: aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere, aurora australis in the south. Today, we understand that auroras are caused by the collision of charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar wind with other particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
These collisions excite atmospheric particles, which then release light as they “relax” to their unexcited state. The color of the light corresponds to the release of individual pieces of energy by atmospheric particles and is also an indication of how much energy was absorbed in the initial collision.
The frequency and intensity of aurora displays are related to activity on the Sun, which follows an 11-year cycle. The spectacular displays of auroras dancing across the sky are the result of complex interactions between the solar wind and the magnetosphere.
Aurora appearances, disappearances, flashes, and formations such as curtains, eddies, fences, and traveling waves are visual representations of the invisible, ever-changing dynamics in Earth’s magnetosphere interacting with the solar wind.
As seen in these videos, the aurora appears in all kinds of colors. The most common are greens and reds, emitted by oxygen in the upper atmosphere. Green auroras correspond to altitudes close to 100 km, while red auroras are higher, above 200 km. Blue colors are emitted by nitrogen, which also emits some reds. Various pinks, purples, and even white light are also possible due to the mixing of these emissions.
Even in quiet space weather conditions, the aurora can be very visible in high latitudes such as Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Antarctica. When a space weather disturbance occurs, auroras can migrate to much lower latitudes, becoming visible across the continental United States, central Europe, and even the southern and mainland of Australia.
