Aurora chasers make sure those cameras take the lead!

Due to increased solar activity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a geomagnetic storm warning for October 3 through October 5.

This is great news for those who want to see the movie northern lights because if the predicted G3 conditions are reached, we could see aurora deep into the mid-latitudes (around 50°) and as far south as Illinois and Oregon.

The perpetrator? A large plume of plasma and magnetic field, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) laid off the sun during a recent explosion X-class solar flare on October 1.

When CMEs interact with Earth’s magnetospherethey bring with them electrically charged particles called ions that collide with the Earth’s magnetic field. These collisions can cause geomagnetic storms. During such storms, ions collide with atmospheric gases, releasing energy that looks like light. This phenomenon is observed as the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Southern Lights, or aurora australis, in the Southern Hemisphere.

Geomagnetic storms are classified by NOAA using a G scale to measure the intensity of geomagnetic storms. They range from G5, the most extreme class, to G1 minor class storms. The recent geomagnetic storm watch issued by NOAA is currently classified as a G1 to G3 class.

When will the geomagnetic storm occur?