Charged particles from the Sun fueled a strong geomagnetic storm from late Sunday into Monday, delivering impressive displays of Northern Lights as far south as the Midwest.
On Sunday, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a Geomagnetic Storm Warning when charged particles from solar wind were forecast to arrive on Earth.
The storm was caused by increased solar wind from a coronal hole, a dark area of the Sun, visible on satellite images, which can produce space weather events here on Earth.
Strong, level 3 out of 5, geomagnetic storm conditions were reached on Sunday, producing colorful displays of Aurora Borealis lights as far south as Michigan.
One lucky air traveler even captured the Northern Lights on their flight from New York to San Francisco on Sunday evening.
“Always look out of airplane windows,” Keagan Wernicke wrote on social media.
The SWPC uses a 9-point scale known as the KP index to rate geomagnetic storm intensity. Early Monday, the KP index reached 6.67, producing active auroras.
On Sunday night, the Northern Lights were seen from dark sky locations across the northern tier of the U.S., including the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast.
The time-lapse video above shows an illuminating display above Alton, New Hampshire, for nearly an hour.
The bright green lights above were seen on cameras from Isle Royale National Park in Michigan.
Lights were also seen in the Pacific Northwest from Seattle by Skunkbay Weather.
There was still a possibility of more Northern Lights on Monday night, but they were not expected to be as strong as skygazers saw on Sunday.
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