Northern Lights Fire Up Monday Morning

(KNSI) – The northern lights danced across the sky overnight in Minnesota as a geomagnetic storm raged in the upper atmosphere.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center registered Kp values as high as seven. Anything over five is enough to kick the aurorae borealis into action across Alaska and the extreme upper fringes of the Continental United States. Based on a scale of up to nine, as the figure increases, the celestial display will become visible to more and more people.

Sunday night and Monday morning were just the latest in a series of impressive aurorae seen over the past 18 months. The sun’s surface activity is cyclical and, most recently, we have seen a strong peak. Solar flares and other energy bursts hurtle towards Earth, where the radiation is absorbed by our planet’s atmosphere. As a defense mechanism, it is redirected towards the Arctic poles.

The topic will be the theme of this week’s Statewide Star Party hosted by the St. Cloud State University planetarium and the Bell Museum.

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