Could South MS see the Northern Lights again this week? Here’s when & why it might happen

An explosion blasted from the sun and hurtled toward Earth this week with magnetic force that could disrupt satellites and power grids and also enchant much of the country with a rare show of Northern Lights.

The eruption launched a solar storm that will reach Earth on Thursday. Forecasters said it may be so strong that residents as far south as Alabama could watch the sky glow.

An aurora in the South would likely appear on the low, northern horizon, forecasters said. But determined southerners may also glimpse it from phone cameras, which take nighttime pictures with a long-exposure lens.

If forecasts come true, it will be the second major solar storm this year. A solar storm that struck in May sent faint auroras to South Mississippi and Louisiana.

The geomagnetic storm could last through Friday. The explosion that caused it, called a coronal mass ejection, launched from the sun at more than 2.5 million miles per hour on Tuesday, said Bryan Brasher, a project manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

Auroras could appear Thursday night from the central East Coast through California, said Shawn Dahl, the service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center.

“And that’s just probably the furthest south we know it could go to,” he said. “It could certainly be further south than that.”

The storm could be so strong that South Mississippi sees the aurora again, Brasher said.

But on Wednesday, he said there was still “significant uncertainty” in that forecast.

What is a geomagnetic storm?

Geomagnetic storm watches occur when an eruption from the sun arrives on Earth. This week’s storm could reach a four out of five on the Space Weather Prediction Center’s severity scale. Storms ranked at level four are “very rare,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said.

Strong geomagnetic storms can create currents on some transmission lines that damage power grids, Brasher said. Satellite communications, GPS and planes can also be impacted. But during past solar storms, Earth avoided widespread impacts because forecasters warned power grid operators and commercial satellites in advance, according to NASA.

Could South MS see Northern Lights?

The storms create northern lights, or auroras, when particles from the sun enter Earth’s magnetic field and mix with oxygen.

The aurora’s scope will be unclear until the coronal mass ejection reaches Earth Thursday morning or midday, Brasher said. He said Northern Lights could “expand significantly” across the country if the storm unfolds as expected.

The best chance to glimpse the aurora is Thursday night. South Mississippi residents who see nothing in the sky can try photographing the northern horizon.

With a phone camera, “there is a chance even if you’re not seeing it with the naked eye that you can pick it up,” said Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Forecasters encouraged residents to check the Space Weather Prediction Center’s aurora forecast on Thursday. The website updates its aurora maps every 30 minutes and tracks where northern lights are most likely to appear.