Chasing The Northern Lights: Aurora borealis watch in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Over the next three nights, a widespread display of the Northern Lights will hover to the north of Philadelphia and if the weather cooperates we could see it.

Thursday night through Saturday night the aurora will be visible across Canada and parts of the northern United States as a trio of geomagnetic storms hits our atmosphere.

Friday night will be one of the best viewing chances we have seen in decades. If skies clear and you are away from bright lights between 10 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday the heavenly sight may be visible. That is the time frame for a Severe G4 (level 4 of 5) geomagnetic storm to interact with our atmosphere in the polar regions leading to what is known as the aurora viewing oval. That oval will dip across the northern United States including Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. The ovals are rated from the smallest KP3 to the largest KP9. This one will be a KP7.

The stronger the geomagnetic storm the greater the chance of seeing Northern Lights. It is during the rare Severe G4 to Extreme G5 storms that the celestial show dips well into the mid-section and even deep south of the nation.

Over the past several weeks our sun has been busy with a constant stream of solar flares. Those are bursts of electromagnetic radiation erupting from the surface of the sun. They are rated as B-Class, C-Class, M-Class and X-Class flares with X-Class being the strongest.

X-flares are the rarest and 10 times stronger than M-Class flares which are 10 times stronger than C-Class flares etc.

The sun has numerous sunspots that solar flares eject from but currently, it is a giant sunspot known as AR3664 that most of the recent X-flares have come from.  AR3664 is the large light area seen on the lower right of this NOAA image of the sun. It is 15 times wider than Earth and visible with simple eclipse-type glasses.

Significant solar flares create a burst of electromagnetic plasma that will rush toward Earth as a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection).

These CMEs travel at speeds up to 1 million miles per hour and can reach Earth in one to three days eventually leading to a geomagnetic storm over Earth and the northern lights. The latest CME can be seen as a faint white halo on this blue-colored image from NASA.

We are currently in what is known as solar cycle #25. Solar cycles are 11 years long and it just so happens 2024 to 2025 is the peak of this cycle. It also has the highest activity seen in years with numerous X-Class flares and geomagnetic storms.

The strongest geomagnetic storm in recorded history is known as the "Carrington Event." It took place in September 1859 at the peak of what was solar cycle #10. The solar radiation that reached Earth was so intense that telegraph lines caught on fire and the aurora norealis was visible worldwide. A Carrington-type storm is expected every 100 to 200 years. If a geomagnetic storm intensely hits Earth today the would be major disruptions to communications and the internet among other things.

Coincidentally the current giant sunspot AR3664 is about the same size as the sunspot that emitted the Carrington Event flare.

Stay with the Next Weather Alert Team for updates on this geomagnetic storm and what is expected to be a very active year ahead with more chances to see the magical dancing lights of the aurora borealis.