PHOTOS: Mother's Day aurora glows over Canada, northern US
This is an astronomy blog done by AccuWeather’s Brian Lada.
A surprisingly strong solar storm sparked the aurora over parts of Canada and the northern United States during the pre-dawn hours of Mother’s Day.
Some of the best pictures of the aurora were taken across the northern Plains and in the Canadian Prairies where skies were mainly clear, allowing for perfect viewing conditions.
A timelapse of the aurora over Calgary.
Last night’s solar storm topped out as a G3 geomagnetic storm, according to NOAA’s SWPC, making it one of the strongest solar storms so far this year.
Usually solar storms this strong are caused by a coronal mass ejection, or CME. However, this was not the case for last night’s light show.
Instead, this G3 storm was a result of a strong southern shift in the Earth’s magnetic field paired with a fast solar wind from the sun.
Below are some pictures of the Mother's Day aurora. For more pictures and updates about everything astronomy, be sure to follow our astronomy pages on Facebook and Twitter.
