The northern lights dipped far enough south on Tuesday night to bring a dramatic color to the sky over Iowa. The show will continue tonight, but will be primarily visible in the northern half of the state— or at least the parts of it without heavy cloud cover — according to the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
There is a possibility that the light show could reach more southerly locations like Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines again on Wednesday night, but if it does, it will likely be much fainter than what was seen on Tuesday. Tuesday was an exceptional display of the northern lights (aurora borealis, if you prefer Latin), with its colors being seen as far south as Florida and northern Mexico.
The lights are produced by charged particles from the sun striking Earth’s geomagnetic field, and exciting atoms of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases in the upper atmosphere. While the standard light show in far northern latitudes is typically the result from the solar wind — the continuous stream of charged particles ejected by the sun — Tuesday’s big show was caused by two large and fast-moving coronal mass ejections (CMEs), plumes of plasma and magnetic field that erupted from the sun.
A third fast-moving CME is approaching Earth. The Space Weather Prediction Center classified this solar activity as a severe geomagnetic storm.
The G4-level storm may cause voltage fluctuations in power grids, though the effects should be easily mitigated, as well as some disruptions in services that rely on satellites, like GPS and radio broadcasts. And, possibly, it’ll bring another night of spectacular skies.
