DETROIT – Northern Lights may make a rare appearance over southeast Michigan tonight!
Here's what's going on:
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, and sometimes even developing majestic twists and twirls. They also can feature a variety of colors, the most common being greens and reds.
What's happening tonight is that the stream of charged particles is temporarily accelerating and, when this happens, the auroral ring is pushed farther south -- possibly as far south as southern Michigan/northern Ohio.
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There's no guarantee that we'll see the Northern Lights, but keep an eye out -- they can be spectacular! If you 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.