Northern Lights Put On A Show In Delaware Valley
by Alex Lloyd Gross
If you looked at the sky last night, chances are you might have seen different colors. Most people did with their naked eye. It’s called Aurora Borealis or The Northern Lights. It’s most common in Iceland, Northern Canada, but a very large solar flare resulted in the atmospheric disturbance that made this phenomenon visible across this area.
Most of the area saw red patches or green. A few saw red and green together. A few lucky people saw a deep blue. This phenomenon does not cover the entire sky, meteorologists say. It may be visible in one area but not in another.
A lot of factors are at play here. Tall buildings or trees can block your view. A dark, clear view of the horizon is best but not an absolute requirement to see it. In upstate New York, the sky was green but 10 minutes later, down here, the sky was red.
It’s not all beauty. A solar flare, (or Coronal Mass Ejection) has been known to extend hundreds of millions of miles. This can play havoc with electrical grids and communications satellites. NASA is still learning about them and they published an interesting article here.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com The Northern Lights are visible in this area.
The storm is not finished and if skies are clear, you might be able to catch a glimpse of this tonight. The Northern Lights do not stay in the sky for a long time. If you can watch it for 15 minutes, you are lucky. The color will appear faint ,then grow to it’s apex, before dissipating. Look in the sky to a northern direction if you want to see it.
The sensor of a cell phone camera is more sensitive and you can see it even more pronounced when you look through there. Last night, social media feeds were swarming with photos from different areas.