Mother's Day auroras? Natural light show may continue tonight — where will it be visible this time
arrive at Earth on May 12th," the space weather prediction center said in its update. CMEs are powerful solar eruptions or large expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun's corona. The major geomagnetic storms are induced by coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
Observing the ejection of CMEs from the Sun provides an early warning of geomagnetic storms. ALSO READ: Northern lights spotted in Kerala? Netizens react to hilarious post on social media "A positive aspect of geomagnetic storms, from an aesthetic point of view, is that the Earth's auroras are enhanced," the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) explained. The Space Weather Prediction Centre informed that the aurora may become visible over much of the northern half of the United States, "may be as far south as Alabama to north California".
ALSO READ: Northern Lights visible in India? Aurora borealis may glitter tonight in this state Meanwhile, Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for NOAA's SWPC, told Space.com, "If everything couples right, we could certainly see the sky lit up again. "We're expecting a decent impact from the CME [coronal mass ejection on Sunday]... It was just a little bit further from the limb [edge] of the sun, but still good enough that it should give us a good hit," Murtagh was quoted as saying.
Some negative aspects of geomagnetic storms include irregularities to power grids, degradation to GPS and high-frequency communications. Earlier on May 10, plasma from coronal mass ejection slammed into Earth, sparking an intense geomagnetic storm. As a result, supercharged northern lights were witnessed in much of the US, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Slovenia, Britain and other regions around the world.
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