Northern lights may make rare appearance in parts of US

It s a very rare occurrence Joe Kunches of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder Colo. told the Los Angeles Times.

It may be only be visible for five or 10 minutes most likely as far south as Colorado Illinois and Iowa and potentially from Chicago Boston Cleveland Seattle and Des Moines.

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The time location and duration of an appearance is a calculated guess. We really don t have the ability to say when it comes to forecasting the aurora Kunches said.

The cause however is clear.

Basically on late Tuesday there was a strong eruption at the sun that was caused by strong magnetic fields Kunches said. Part of that eruption was at a cloud which got blown off.

The eruption shook Earth's magnetic field and expanded the Aurora Borealis south possibly as far south as Colorado and central Illinois.

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Kunches likened the eruption to a foul ball at a baseball game.

There is a directional component to it he said. It really matters where you are.

In this case the cloud like a foul ball at a baseball game is coming our way.

He said best viewing would probably be Thursday around midnight in all regions weather permitting.

Normally the Northern lights mostly appear at the very northern or southern latitudes because that s where the magnetic fields of Earth come through the atmosphere Andrew West a Boston University professor in the department of astronomy told The Times in an email.

Following large solar flares where huge amounts of particles are sent into the solar system we can often see auroras and sometimes at mid latitudes.

Dr. William Paterson of NASA's Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences said that the aurora is visible in these areas a couple of times a decade.

Back in 2004 Paterson said the Northern lights were visible as far south as Virginia. But the magnitude of this geomagnetic solar storm is hard to predict.

Exactly how dramatic the storm is going to be we can t tell Paterson said. But it is within the realm of possibilities that the Northern lights are going to be seen pretty far south.

Kunches said if the storm isn t as severe as forecasters are predicting the Northern lights may only make its way to the U.S. Canada border.

The name aurora borealis means dawn of the north. In Roman myth Aurora was the goddess of the dawn according to the Canada based Northern Lights Centre website.

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