Stargazers in Northern California could be in for a treat Friday night. A strong solar storm could make the Northern Lights visible in parts of the state.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the outbursts of plasma are capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth. The agency issued a rare geometric storm watch — the first in nearly 20 years.
The best chance for seeing them we’ve had in years will start Friday evening, with peak viewing overnight between the early hours of 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Saturday.
The images of the Northern Lights you usually see are from long-exposure cameras so it won’t look exactly like that to the trained eye. If we see them on the northern horizon, it will look like a faint, green glow.
They could be visible in parts of the Bay Area, and possibly they may be low on the horizon as far south as Southern California. The best shot of seeing them will be in the Pacific Northwest.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s rare geomagnetic storm watch — the first in nearly 20 years — was expected to become a warning Friday night when the effects of the solar outburst were due to reach Earth. NOAA already has alerted operators of power plants and spacecraft in orbit to take precautions.
“As far as the worst situation expected here at Earth, that’s tough to say and I wouldn’t want to speculate on that,” said NOAA space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl. “However, severe level is pretty extraordinary, It’s a very rare event to happen.”
NOAA said the sun produced strong solar flares beginning Wednesday, resulting in five outbursts of plasma capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth. Each eruption – known as a coronal mass ejection – can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth, according to NOAA.
An extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003 took out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa. The most intense solar storm in recorded history, in 1859, prompted auroras in Central America and possibly even Hawaii.
“That’s an extreme-level event,” Dahl said. “We are not anticipating that” but it could come close.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
