Northern lights set to shine in parts of Canada this weekend. Here’s where

globalnews.ca:

solar flares that erupted on the sun on their way to Earth, potentially bringing some intense displays of the northern lights.The Space Weather Prediction Center in the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminsitration (NOAA) said on Thursday that a strong geomagnetic storm watch has been issued Oct.

4 to 6 due to a pair of coronal mass ejections.The anticipated light show will be among a bounty of aurora borealis viewings seen this year. They are due to the sun’s magnetic field, which is at its peak of its 11-year cycle and putting out more solar storms, resulting in more frequent displays of northern lights.“Up to now, this peak is exceeding predictions significantly and it hasn’t reached the top yet,” David Knudsen, the head of the University of Calgary’s department of physics and astronomy, told Global News on Thursday.On Tuesday, scientists recorded one of the strongest solar flares of the cycle, considered an X7, which was then outperformed two days later with an X9 on Thursday, the biggest since 2017.According to the Stanford Solar Center, solar flares typically range from B — considered too small to harm Earth — up to X, which can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.When these flares interact with the Earth, they cause geomagnetic storms which are then given a classification of G1 to G5 in terms of strength, with G1 seeing potential weak power grid fluctuations and a G5 having the potential to cause some grid systems to experience complete blackouts.