The sun released a historic solar flare on Thursday, which is set to trigger glorious auroras across the northern US when it hits our planet.
The enormous explosion of radiation, the largest in seven years, could also so spark radio blackouts and disrupt satellites and GPS system.
But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has predicted the more likely scenario of bright, colorful lights streaking across the night sky as far south as New York, Nebraska and Indiana.
The burst is set to impact Earth Friday, with NOAA saying the best views for auroras will be Saturday.
Stunning auroras are set to be visible in several US states starting Friday through Sunday, with experts predicting the best views will be seen on Saturday
Silvia Dalla, professor of solar physics at the University of Central Lancashire said: ‘Look northwards and try to find a place with dark skies, ideally away from a city where light pollution can interfere with the view.’
NOAA has advice those who hope to see the northern lights to get away from city lights.
The best viewing time is usually within an hour or two before or after midnight, and the agency says the best occasions are around the spring and fall equinoxes, due to the way the solar wind interacts with Earth´s magnetosphere.
Meteorologists have predicted Alaska and Canada will have auroras over head, along with the most north regions of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine and Michigan.
The southern parts of these states and New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, Iowa and Nebraska are set to see a northern glow in the night sky.
And Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, Nevada, Utah Missouri can capture the views using cameras.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which constantly watches the Sun, captured the huge flare on Thursday.
Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
‘Solar flares and fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields,’ said Dalla.
‘This strong geomagnetic activity results in breath-taking displays of the Northern Lights.
The powerful solar flare, a X9.05, peaked at 8:10am ET, sparking blackouts over parts of Africa and Europe.
The auroras are due to the sun releasing an enormous explosion of radiation on Thursday, which was captured by NASA’s observatory that is orbiting Earth’s star
X is the largest class of solar flare, which can trigger radio blackouts across the globe and widespread damage to satellites, spacecraft and power grids.
It is followed by M, C, and B-class in descending order of severity. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale of one to nine that further specifies the flare’s intensity.
The X9.05 flare exploded from sunspot AR3842, a dark, fast-growing region of strong magnetic fields on the sun’s surface, which had previously release another on Tuesday.
The flares have put Earth under a geomagnetic warning, which is a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere – the area around Earth controlled by the planet’s magnetic field.
NOAA has issued a G3 warning starting today until Sunday, which could disrupt power systems, spacecraft operations, GPS and radio navigation.
Dr Steph Yardley, a space scientist at Northumbria University, said the region of the Sun which has been producing the flares, has been particularly active.
‘This region on the sun is one to watch as it has been quite active over the past few days, previously producing another strong flare on October 1 that was also associated with a solar eruption,’ she explained.
‘Both eruptions associated with the strong flares are Earth-directed and we expect them to impact us sometime between October 4-6, meaning auroras might be visible in Scotland and North England during this period.’
