Northern lights add a breathtaking glow to the NC sky

It was a colorful display in the North Carolina sky on Thursday as a geomagnetic storm sparked northern lights across the United States on Thursday evening.

Several North Carolina residents began sending photos of the phenomenon to WRAL News around 7:25 p.m

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) had issued a G4 geomagnetic storm warning. It is a response to a coronal mass ejection (CME) on Earth that erupted from the sun on Tuesday evening.

The CME was accompanied by a powerful solar flare, as observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

According to SWPC forecasters, these events trigger auroras visible low on our northern horizon and higher in the sky in states from the Mid-Atlantic to Northern California. Those in the green areas on the forecast map below are more likely to see auroras overhead, lower in the sky in white areas, and along the northern horizon to the solid green line to the south.

Sky watchers are reminded to point their smartphones upward for photos; The devices can often capture northern lights that the human eye cannot.

Ahead of the light show, many residents have several questions: Will there be a repeat of the G5 event in May? Will we be able to see more northern lights in the Carolinas?

“The potential is there, but we won't know until the CME arrives at the spacecraft,” NOAA space weather scientist Shawn Dahl said in a news conference Wednesday.

Dahl was referring to NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and NOAA's The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) missions, which monitor space weather from L1, a point of gravitational equilibrium between the Earth and the Sun.

Instruments aboard these missions monitor changes in the solar wind and measure particles and their magnetic polarity. This polarity is as important as the strength of the storm in determining how far south the aurora might be visible.

If the polarity matched the Earth's magnetic field, it would repel the particles, just like any magnet.

However, if ACE and DSCOVR determined that the initial bow shock was of the opposite polarity, the CME could connect to Earth's donut-shaped magnetic field and funnel charged particles deeper into lower latitudes.

Even from this point, about 1 million miles from Earth, we only get between 15 and 60 minutes of warning about how intense the storm might be before it reaches Earth, depending on the CME speed.

Unlike the G5 event in May, which was fueled by multiple CMEs traveling at different speeds that converged upon arrival on Earth, meteorologists did not expect Thursday's event to be as powerful. However, meteorologists estimate that there is about a 25% chance of the G4 clock being raised to the G5 level required for increased visibility in our area.

This scenario would have moved the show deeper south, to the Carolinas.

Geomagnetic storms leave more than just beautiful northern lights on Earth. They can affect radio and satellite communications as well as the transmission of electrical energy.

The SWPC is warning FEMA along with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which manages the power grid. This happened about six hours before the G5 storm in May.

“Given the ongoing relief efforts for Hurricane (Helene) and the impending disaster (Hurricane Milton), we contacted them immediately.”