Skywatchers treated to a northern lights extravaganza from coastal B.C. to Germany

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This article was published 11/10/2024 (723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many Canadians, Americans, and Europeans may have woken up with kinked necks Friday after a dazzling overnight display of the aurora borealis.

A strong solar storm had much of Earth’s northern skies dancing with pink, purple, green, and blue lights ranging from the west coast of Canada all the way to Germany.

For Becky Holvik from Meaford, Ont., about 180 kilometres northwest of Toronto, it was the most impressive display she’s ever seen.

“It was like being in a natural cathedral,” she said. “It kind of makes you feel small.”

Holvik said it was the first time her two sons, and her husband, were able to take in the phenomenon, and the boys spent the evening with eyes to the sky while laying in the grass on the family farm.

She said she was glad her family was able to take in “the quintessential Canadian experience.”

“What’s the point in living in Alberta or in rural Ontario if you can’t get to see those kind of things?”

Thursday’s nights display was one in a series of recent strong solar storms, and University of Alberta physics professor Ian Mann says there could be more on the way.

“It’s very hard to predict when (it’s) going to be,” he said. “It looks to be a much more active cycle than we were expecting.”

Mann explained that the aurora borealis appears as result of “explosions” on the sun’s surface ejecting material into space. When that material comes into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere it becomes visible in the sky as visible light.

The sun, Mann said, has a roughly 11-year cycle where it shifts from minimal solar activity to maximum activity, which includes solar flares and explosions, although solar flares aren’t the cause of the northern lights. Mann said the sun is nearing the peak of another maximum activity cycle point, but just how active this point of the cycle will be remains to be seen.

“It may be that this winter season for aurora watching might be the best… if that’s when the solar cycle peaks,” he said, noting that as the intensity of solar activity increases, so does the vibrancy, and coverage, of the northern lights, which is why the lights were visible as far south as the midwestern United States.

At the University of Alberta, Mann is a part of a team of researchers who run AuroraWatch, an online platform that tries to forecast the likelihood of the northern lights being visible in the Edmonton area.

AuroraWatch website provides a real-time monitor of geomagnetic activity and the team also offers a free email alert service that issues notices when activity is high.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.