WEST MICHIGAN — Get your lawn chairs ready and find a perfect spot away from the city lights ... West Michigan has a great seat this week to view the northern lights! The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch through August 19. The greater potential for viewing northern lights will be Thursday night into Friday morning due to multiple and the strongest coronal mass ejections.
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. Essentially, it's a wave of energy emitted from the sun that is charged with protons and electrons. The energy then moves through the magnetic field of the Earth, entering the Earth's atmosphere at the north and south poles.
The sun's energy and electrons then collide with Earth's molecules, creating the northern lights or aurora borealis. Depending on the type of molecule that it collides with on Earth, it can create various colors in the atmosphere.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, "when the CME (coronal mass ejection) approaches Earth, NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite will be among the first spacecraft to detect the real-time solar wind changes and SWPC forecasters will issue any appropriate warnings."
Due to the strength of these coronal mass ejections and additional factors, the aurora might be seen over portions of Pennsylvania, Iowa, to northern Oregon. For immediate updates about the northern light potential, you can visit www.spaceweather.gov.
