Are the Northern Lights visible tonight?
I heard that there was a CME sent out from the sun recently this morning. I live in Bellingham, WA and some of the reports on my IPhone app said it would be visible in WA state. I was thinking of heading out east to the dark cascade mountains or even NE for about 2-3 hours into British Columbia. Does anyone have any feedback whether they'll actually be strong or out tonight around the NW? Thanks for your help!
Added (1). Thank you for the responses, but i'm still confused! I have read many articles that talk about the Aurora being strong and visible further south TONIGHT. Wasn't there a CME a few days ago? I just can't seem to figure out and get a definite answer on whether the aurora will be visible around WA or BC. I like the Univeristy of Fairbanks site, but they really don't update it well and mention CME's and what not. They rarely change their forecast.
Maybe, but at 93 million miles away it will take some time for the particles to get here.
Goggle Northern lights tonight and see what comes up in your area.
Yes, but in a couple of days.
On Mar 15 a CME occurred:
" CME IMPACT: As expected, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on March 15th at approximately 0500 UT. The impact was weak, but conditions for geomagnetic storming could develop as Earth passes through the CME's wake. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on March 15th and 16th [caused by electrons that move much faster than protons].
POSSIBLE EARTH-DIRECTED CME: A magnetic filament snaking around sunspot AR1692 erupted on March 15th at about 0600 UT. The slow explosion, which took hours to unfold, produced an M1-class solar flare and a bright CME. SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) captured the CME just as it was leaving the sun:
The central location of the explosion combined with multiple views of the CME from SOHO and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft suggest that the cloud is heading almost directly toward Earth. If so, an impact would likely occur in 2 to 3 days, setting the stage for weekend auroras. Stay tuned for refined estimates of the arrival time."
That is a quote from:
http://www.spaceweather.com/
Also this site gives aurora forecasts. Looks rather doubtful for the the lower 48 states. The CME might reach us around March 18/19th, some folks say Saturday evening.
The only way to know for certain is to go out yourself and look.
Whatever the forecast predicts, yes or no, it might be wrong.
I hope you see them, because they are a really amazing show.
I've been observing the northern lights for over 50 years now, but I've never found any reliable source of predictions. Instead I rely on taking a few peeks at the sky at various times during the night, and sometimes I get lucky.
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