Sky-watchers across Canada could be treated to a dazzling
light show tonight and tomorrow night, owing to a pair of solar belches that
cast a cloud of magnetized gas into space, triggering a strong geomagnetic
storm.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
Space Weather Prediction Center observed a "severe" G4 geomagnetic
storm Tuesday morning around 9:58 a.m. ET.
"That means the particle environment around the Earth
is going to be quite disturbed, and that might mean that you'll see a lot of
aurora as the night falls," said Emma Spanswick, associate director of the
Auroral Imaging Group at the University of Calgary.
AuroraMAX, the public outreach initiative dedicated to the
science of the northern lights, issued an alert for "active auroras"
on March 17 and 18, flagging observers in Yukon, Northwest Territories,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and parts of B.C., Ontario, Quebec and
Newfoundland and Labrador.
NOAA said the G4 solar storm was the result of two coronoal
mass ejections, or CMEs, observed leaving the sun on March 15.
The auroras are expected to streak across the skies tonight
and tomorrow.
"It takes a long time for the actual particles ejected
to reach the Earth. That's why we have trouble predicting it," Spanswick
said.
"We're never sure when it's going to hit. It might miss us because it's got days to travel."
"We're never sure when it's going to hit. It might miss us because it's got days to travel."
CMEs occur when the sun sporadically releases cloudy blobs
of gas and magnetic field lines.
Source: CBC
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