DETROIT – There was so much hope last night that MAYBE we'd get to see the Northern Lights, but most of us went to bed with those dreams unfulfilled.
In order to explain what happened, let me first recap why the lights occur:
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Charged particles from the sun continuously hit the Earth's atmosphere, and this creates a permanent ring of Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) around the North Pole. And by the way, it also happens at the South Pole -- those lights are called Aurora Australis. The charged particles (technically, electrons) interact with molecular oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere by transferring their energy to them, which excites them into higher energy states. Eventually, these molecules relax back into lower energy states and, as a byproduct of this process, release that excess energy in the form of light that we can see.
The aurora can take on many forms in our nighttime sky, sometimes appearing like folds of cloth, other times forming arcs that stretch from horizon to horizon, sometimes appearing as rays shooting upward from the horizon, and sometimes even developing majestic twists and twirls. They also can feature a variety of colors, the most common being greens and reds.
Again, the aurora is a continuous ring around the North Pole, and it takes an acceleration of the stream of charged particles from the sun to push that ring south. The stronger the solar eruption that accelerates the particles, the greater the potential for the auroral ring to be pushed farther south. Yesterday, the solar impulse was forecasted to generate a G3 geomagnetic storm, which should have given us a chance to see the lights here in southern Michigan. However, the impulse ended up hitting between 3:00 and 3:30 AM, when most of us were asleep.
Thus far, I haven't received any reports of seeing the lights here in southeast Michigan, but I have seen some aurora photos from up north, as well as comparable latitudes around the nation, and world. Those photos are owned by the photographers, so I cannot show them here in this article because I do not have permission to do so. But you can see some at spaceweather.com.
And this leads me to one more point:
Yesterday, as I communicated with many of you on Facebook and Twitter, many people asked what time the lights would appear. Forecasting the timing of the Northern Lights is very tricky. We have a general idea of how fast those charged particles are travelling toward Earth, and can generally provide a general time frame (such as "tomorrow night"). However, we generally can't give an exact time far in advance. Last night, some people were saying that they heard that the time would be 10pm. That never came from me: I urged people to just step outside and keep checking from time to time. And remember that aurora don't come and go in a flash -- they develop and move out slowly and gracefully (timelapse photography of aurora is unbelievable). Like many of you last night, I finally went to bed -- disappointed in not seeing the Northern Lights.
There's a smaller chance to see the Northern Lights tonight than we had last night, but keep an eye out anyway…they can be spectacular! If you get lucky and do see them, and manage to take a great picture, post it on Storm Pins so Ben Bailey can show it tonight on Local 4 News at 11.
Also, for those of you who follow me on Twitter (@PGLocal4), I'll let you know if I get any reports that they have appeared.
