Solar storm may serve up another view of northern lights

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If you missed seeing the aurora borealis back in May, Mother Nature may give you a second chance at enjoying the northern lights this week, if the weather co-operates, that is.

London, with all of Ontario, is under the aurora borealis view line, meaning the northern lights could be visible for two or three nights starting Tuesday, according to the U.S.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that tracks space weather events.

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It would be the second time in recent months a strong enough solar storm is expected to hit the Earth after a similar storm in May produced a light show visible from London and Southwestern Ontario, said Nikhil Arora, a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at Queen’s University.

To better understand how the northern lights are created, Arora compared the sun to a boiling pot of soup.

“When your soup is almost done and it starts to bubble up, every now and then a big enough bubble will pop up to the surface, and it will pop open, and it will splurge some of the drops of this soup onto your stove,” he said.

“The sun is essentially a big bottle of soup, and it’s boiling and bringing materials from the centre toward the surface. And every now and then, it brings up a bubble, and when that bubble pops, it sends material, which is plasma, toward the Earth.”

Once the plasma hits the Earth, the planet’s magnetic fields pull those particles toward the north and south pole. The interaction between the particles and the Earth’s atmosphere creates the colours seen in the sky.

“The further north you are, the more often you’ll get to see them,” Arora said. “So, if you live somewhere like in Thunder Bay or Yellowknife or Whitehorse, you pretty much see them every winter.”

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But sometimes, those sun explosions are so strong and intense the Earth’s magnetic field is not able to pull all of the material onto the poles, making the aurora borealis visible to more people. That’s what will allow people in Southwestern Ontario to have a chance to see the northern lights this week.

That’s especially the case now, as the sun is entering what is called a solar maximum, an 11-year cycle where it’s more active and the explosions are more intense, Arora said.

“There will be more and more solar storms over this next year or so. How strong they will be, we cannot predict, nor when they happen,” he said, noting predictions can usually only be made two or three days in advance.

Arora also said summer nights usually are not dark enough for the aurora borealis to be seen this time of the year.

But the upcoming solar storm is expected to be strong enough to “overpower” that.

A different story might be cloudy skies.

“If it’s cloudy, you’re not going to see it,” he said. “However, if it’s a clear night, you should be able to see green colours, a little bit of green and a little bit of reds.”

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Arora recommends people stay away from places with a lot of light pollution, such as cities downtowns, for a better viewing experience. If not visible to the naked eye, cellphone cameras can still help people enjoy the lights and take “stunning” pictures, Arora said.

The effects of this particular storm are expected to last two or three days starting Tuesday.

The forecast for the London region called for showers all three days, including at night.

But Arora, who has yet to see the northern lights himself, remains optimistic.

“Of all space-related things, this is the only thing I haven’t seen,” he said with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t lose hope.”

jjuha@postmedia.com

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