Northern lights may be visible tonight
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Strong geomagnetic storms and a moderate solar radiation storm have led to an aurora view forecast for Wednesday night in the northern U.S.
The Aurora Borealis was spotted in a large swath of states, including Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state. Northern lights were visible as far south as parts of Florida and Alabama, a relatively rare occurrence that highlights the severity of this week's storms.
After displays of auroras lit up the sky on Tuesday, another Northern Light array is expected to bring a gleaming light show to the northern part of the U.S. Wednesday.
The northern lights were visible Tuesday night across the Chicago area, illuminating the sky with brightly colorful displays due to severe solar storms.
Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.
Solar storms may bring the colorful northern lights, or aurora borealis, back to North Georgia on Wednesday night.
VALLEY FALLS, Kansas (AP) — Charlie Riedel has been a staff photographer for The Associated Press based in Kansas City for 25 years. He has covered Olympics, Super Bowls and the Masters among many sporting events in his career. He also has covered presidential elections, weather disasters, the Gulf oil spill and protests.
Triggered by an intense geomagnetic storm, the northern nights made a rare visit to the Southland on Tuesday night, painting the skies above the Angeles National Forest in dazzling pink and purple hues.
Skies over North America erupted this week with shimmering colors: Shades of pink, purple and green swayed across the skies in Northern as well as some Southern states. It followed two similarly prolific auroral displays in North America in October and May of 2024.