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Watch the Northern Lights over Montana on Friday and Saturday

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The moon and our star will align Friday and Saturday evening to give Montanans a chance to see a night sky display rarely seen in the past decade.

On Thursday, the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) reported that one of the largest and most powerful clusters of solar flares seen since 2005 has erupted from the Sun’s surface, and the resulting geomagnetic storm is expected to spread across northern latitudes will spread from the earth. the next two days. In layman’s terms, that means one of the most spectacular displays of the Northern Lights in recent memory will take place this weekend, and Montanans are in a perfect position to witness it.

The SWPC, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reports that at least five Earth-centered Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) erupted Thursday from a sunspot cluster 16 times the diameter of Earth. The massive storm of magnetic particles that created this event is expected to reach Earth late Friday or early Saturday and gradually diminish toward Sunday morning.

The resulting light show it will create, the Aurora Borealis, will be one of the largest in recent years. SWPC forecasters say it’s possible these Northern Lights will be visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California. Even better for residents of central Montana, the National Weather Service is forecasting clear or partly cloudy night skies, and this weekend there will be just a sliver of waning moon, making for a dark night and near-perfect viewing conditions across the state.

What causes the Northern Lights?

We have Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) to thank for the Northern Lights. According to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the stream of charged particles that CMEs produce creates currents in the Earth’s magnetic fields. These currents carry charged particles to the North and South Poles, where they interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. The interaction causes these gases to glow, creating the shimmering beauty we call the Northern Lights.

Strong geomagnetic storms can also damage satellites and infrastructure on the ground, potentially disrupting communications, power grids, navigation and radio activities. NASA notes that an extreme geomagnetic storm in October 2003 resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.

Thursday’s CMEs were not as strong as those of Halloween 2003, but are concerning enough to prompt the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) to issue a rare G4 Geomagnetic Storm Warning, the first of its kind since January 2005.

Who will see the Northern Lights?

As of Thursday, the SWPC aurora forecast shows that residents in northern parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and most of North Dakota will have the best chance of seeing the northern lights.

While it can be difficult to say exactly when Montana residents will have the best chance to see the aurora borealis, SWPC forecasters suggest the best viewing will likely be shortly after midnight tonight (Friday/Saturday) and from 11 p.m. Saturday through Sunday morning 4am. SWPC provides one-day and next-day forecasts for potential Northern Lights sightings.

If you don’t get a chance to see the Northern Lights this weekend, chances are you’ll get another chance in the very near future. According to NASA, we are approaching the peak of the current solar cycle, an eleven-year period during which the sun reverses its magnetic north and south poles. It is at this time that the geomagnetic storms that produce the Northern Lights reach their peak activity.

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