Vibrant auroras will be visible across the northern US tonight (Tuesday) as our planet passes through a stream of charged particles emanating from a 'coronal hole' in the sun's atmosphere. (Image credit: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Tonight, the northern lights will be visible as far south as New York and Idaho, thanks to a “coronal hole” that is sending streams of charged particles toward Earth.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a G2 geomagnetic storm warning for Tuesday, March 25, around 7 a.m. ET yesterday (March 24). The warning was upgraded to a storm warning shortly before midnight. Like hurricanes, geomagnetic storms are rated on a 5-point intensity scale. G2 storms are considered “moderate” and can cause minor technology disruptions, such as radio outages, GPS issues, and increased auroral visibility at lower latitudes than normal.
“Observations of this magnitude are not uncommon,” says NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center; G2-strength geomagnetic storms hit Earth about 360 days out of every 11-year solar cycle. These storms can affect spacecraft orbits and cause minor fluctuations in high-latitude power grids, but they mostly create “manageable effects on some technology infrastructure,” NOAA notes.
The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a storm warning for today because a “coronal hole” in the sun is facing Earth. Coronal holes are cooler, darker regions of the sun's outer atmosphere (the corona) that are less dense than normal, allowing high-speed solar winds — streams of charged particles — to escape the sun and hurtle into space. Today, one of these high-speed streams will be headed straight for our planet.
On March 25, the “coronal hole” will be facing Earth, directing high-speed solar winds toward us.
Earth's magnetic field deflects most of the solar wind, but some charged particles penetrate into the upper atmosphere. When the solar wind hits Earth's atmosphere, the charged particles move toward the poles, exciting atmospheric molecules and causing them to radiate energy as colorful auroras.
In October 2024, the sun reached its solar maximum, the most active part of its 11-year cycle. During this period, the sun's magnetic poles switch places and space weather events such as geomagnetic storms and solar flares occur more frequently. Scientists believe that solar maximum
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