Northern lights create awe-inspiring scene over US, Europe
It was one of the best displays of the aurora over the United States since 2003, with the Aurora Borealis seen as far south as Oklahoma and North Carolina.
Clear skies allowed an aurora borealis to shimmer green hues across the northern sky in numerous locations overnight April 23 into April 24.
A rare outburst of the northern lights sent stargazers into a state of awe on Sunday night across the United States as mesmerizing colors danced overhead, a light show more impressive than the aurora outbreak from late March. The aurora was reportedly seen as far south as Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Carolina.
The lights were sparked by an eruption on the sun that sent a billion tons of magnetized gas toward the Earth. When it collided with the planet on Sunday, it ignited one of the most vibrant displays of the aurora since 2003.
The aurora borealis first appeared over Europe with reports of the celestial lights coming in from as far south as France, Poland and Ukraine.
"I run northern lights tours in Tromsø, Norway, but would have never dreamt of seeing auroras from my home town of Berlin," Thomas Hunger told SpaceWeather.com.
The aurora waned some by the time the sun was setting over the eastern U.S., but it did not take long for the aurora to flare up once again late on Sunday night. People who stayed up were rewarded with enchanting views of the sky ablaze with hues of green, pink and purple.
"We couldn’t see the aurora with our eyes, but this is the first time in our lives either of us took pictures of the aurora," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike Doll said after photographing the northern lights with his wife near State College, Pennsylvania.
The brilliant display was easily seen from space by a fleet of NOAA's weather satellites. Typically, the satellites capture images of the weather on Earth, but at night, city lights and the Aurora Borealis can be spotted.
The magnificent light show was also seen across part of the Southern Hemisphere in Australia and New Zealand. In this region of the world, the celestial lights are known as the aurora australis.
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Sunday night's geomagnetic storm caused more than just colorful lights in the sky. According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the storm led to some irregularities in the power grid, GPS and radio communications, but the disruptions were manageable.
The geomagnetic storm responsible for Sunday night's rare celestial display has weakened, spelling an end to the rare outburst that colored the sky over the U.S. However, the aurora could continue through Monday night in parts of Canada and the far northern U.S. in areas nearly devoid of light pollution.
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