Aurora is back: Northern lights may be visible in Iowa Tuesday

(NEXSTAR) – If you missed the spectacular northern lights displays over the weekend , you may have another chance to see the aurora Tuesday night — at least if you live in northern Iowa.

The solar activity predicted to hit Earth Tuesday night is much weaker than what we saw Friday and Saturday, so the line of visibility isn’t expected to reach as far south this time. Just a smidge of northern Iowa is included in the latest prediction.

The weekend’s geomagnetic storm had the highest, “extreme” G5 rating . With G5 storms, the northern lights can be visible as far south as Florida and South Texas. Tuesday’s storm is predicted to be a G2, or “moderate” strength.

With G2 storms, the northern lights tend to be visible in several northern states, says the Space Weather Prediction Center. A forecast map for Tuesday shows the line of visibility (in red) extending across the Pacific Northwest, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and far Northeast.

The further north you are, the better chance you’ll have of seeing the aurora. You’ll also need clear skies and minimal light pollution for the best view.

If you’re looking for the northern lights, point your eyes in the direction of the northern horizon. Using your phone camera can also help. Newer phones have lenses that are much more sensitive to light than our eyes, so they can capture the aurora even when it’s not visible with the naked eye.

Aurora activity has been more common lately as the sun gets closer to solar maximum .

“During the Sun’s natural 11-year cycle, the Sun shifts from relatively calm to stormy, then back again,” explained Nicola Fox , the director of NASA’s heliophysics division. “At its most active, called solar maximum, the Sun is freckled with sunspots and its magnetic poles reverse.”

Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, form near those sunspots. CMEs are essentially explosions of plasma and magnetic material shooting out of the sun. When they hit our magnetic field, currents send particles flowing to poles, and that’s what causes the aurora, or northern lights, to appear in our skies.

Chances of seeing northern lights will remain higher until the sun reaches the peak of the solar cycle .

Addy Bink contributed to this report.

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