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Northern lights could be visible tonight, this weekend: when and where

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Northern lights could be visible tonight, this weekend: when and where

The Sun has had a busy week.

There was plenty of solar activity in the first few days of October with two observed coronal mass ejections, including the massive X7.1 solar flare on Tuesday and then a rare X9 solar flare on Thursday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather forecast center.

Solar flares are sudden bursts of energy that occur on the surface of the sun and can trigger auroras here on Earth.

That means the coming weekend could offer many Americans the chance to potentially see the northern lights — the colorful phenomenon known as the aurora borealis — in the sky on Friday and Saturday evening.

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The Northern Lights could reach their peak on Saturday evening

As of Friday afternoon, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center forecast a “mild to strong” geomagnetic storm for Oct. 4-6, with activity peaking late Saturday evening into Sunday.

The center said outside variables could affect the reliability of the prediction, including the precise trajectory of the solar flare, which could change during its 93 million mile journey to Earth.

“There is considerable uncertainty associated with this prediction because initial space weather predictions are based on distant and limited solar observations,” the center said in a statement to USA TODAY on Wednesday. “Auroras can be unpredictable and wax and wane quickly. Visibility can range from bright and relatively high in the sky to dim and low on the northern horizon (perhaps only visible in long exposure photography) or even not visible at all.”

On Friday, the center expects the northern lights to be visible near the Canadian border in clear weather. On Saturday, the phenomenon could be visible as far away as Oregon, Nebraska, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Weather models showed Friday that clear skies are forecast for much of the United States Saturday evening.

Why are the northern lights more common?

As auroras form, the Earth's magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles through a process that creates a breathtaking display of rays, spirals and flickers that has fascinated humans for millennia. Whether greens, reds, blues and pinks dance in the sky depends on the altitude at which the collisions occur, as well as the composition and density of the atmosphere at that time.

By then, sunspots in regions with intense magnetic activity are likely to increase, according to NOAA. When this magnetic activity is released, it produces intense bursts of radiation that result in solar flares – considered by NASA to be our solar system's largest explosion events.

Solar flares emit radiation, usually in the form of ultraviolet light and X-rays, which can travel toward Earth at the speed of light. Some of these eruptions may be accompanied by coronal mass ejections, or clouds of plasma and charged particles emanating from the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona.

These ejecta can collide with Earth's magnetosphere, the barrier that protects humanity from the harshest effects of space weather, and create geomagnetic storms.

As auroras form, the Earth's magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles through a process that creates a breathtaking display of rays, spirals and flickers that has fascinated humans for millennia. Whether greens, reds, blues and pinks dance in the sky depends on the altitude at which the collisions occur, as well as the composition and density of the atmosphere at that time.

Eric Lagatta and Anthony Robledo Jr. contributed to this report.

Max Hauptman is a trends reporter for USA TODAY. He can be reached at [email protected]

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