Hoosiers got a rare view of a spectacular event when the Northern Lights danced through the skies May 10-12, a scant month after the total eclipse. We probably all have cricks in our neck from all the sky gazing we’ve been doing.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a statement on May 10 stating they had observed “at least seven coronal ejections (CMEs) from the sun,” and issued a Geomagnetic Storm Warning. Clinton Wallace, the director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said “This is an unusual and potentially historic event.”
Here in Indiana, we were treated to a dazzling display of lights across the state. City dwellers might not have been able to see much, but a drive out from the city lights into the rural darkness yielded breathtaking views. Social media was flooded with images from all over the world. Here in the state we were lucky to get clear skies with a few clouds, especially since we’ve had rainy weekends for a while.
The Northern Lights, or the aurora borealis, are routinely seen in the higher latitudes, but this particular light show was thanks to a series of powerful solar storms with intense flares. The lights are created when energized particles from the sun reach Earth’s upper atmosphere, going up to 45 million mph. The Earth’s magnetic field pulls the particles toward the poles, both north and south, interacting with particles in our atmosphere. The swirls and ribbons are due to the motion of the planet and these particles. In the southern hemisphere, the lights are called . . . . wait for it . . . the Southern Lights or aurora australis.
The Sun goes through a cycle of maximum to minimum activity in about 11 years, and currently we are in the solar maximum part of the cycle, which will last into 2025.
In addition to the beautiful lights, the solar storm caused outages in GPS systems in some places. The strong charged particles from the CMEs interact with the magnetic field, causing interference from satellites that feed information to GPS systems. Farmers in the midwest who rely on GPS to plant crops were reporting outages just as they hit peak planting season.
Throughout the centuries, the Northern Lights have been thought to be everything from battling dragons (China), evil omens (France and Italy), the spirits of the dead trying to communicate with loved ones (Cree Native American), the spirits of the dead playing a ball game (Inuit), horse drawn carriages carrying guests to a celestial wedding (Estonia), and a firefox running with sparks flying from his tail (Finland). In Japan, there is a belief that a child conceived beneath the Northern Lights will grow to be strong, beautiful, and smart — a belief that has increased tourism from Japan to Alaska and other parts of the world for honeymoons. On the other hand, the appearance of the lights was considered an ill omen in Scotland, signifying the beginnings of war and pestilence.
For those who got to witness the Northern Lights when they visited Indiana, it was a memorable once-in-a-lifetime experience.
