Solar eruption might cause spectacular light show in the sky

A solar eruption that happened Sunday might cause the Northern Lights (Aurora borealis) to be visible tonight across the Northern Hemisphere. The solar eruption that happened early on Sunday morning blasted a huge quantity of ionized solar atoms in space. This is called a coronal ejection – the ejection of material from the solar corona.

The plasma flare is coming towards Earth and is expected to reach us during August 4th. Such a plasma cloud reaching our planet can cause the unexpectedly strong Northern Lights activity that could even be visible far from the North Pole.

When the Sun’s ejected coronal material reaches Earth’s magnetic field it interacts with it, and might create a geomagnetic storm. The solar particles collide with the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere, causing them to emit light – this effect is called Northern Lights or Aurora (Borealis at the North Pole, Australis at the South Pole). These lights can usually be seen only close to the Earth’s magnetic poles, but in case of a geomagnetic storm, they can also be seen further from them.

The solar eruption was recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft launched on February 11th 2010 as part of the Living With a Star program. According to astronomers, this is the first major Earth-directed eruption that happened for quite some time.