Strange things occurred this week along the Texas horizon.
Central Texans were able to look at the night sky this week and see a splitting image of Stranger Things’ “Upside Down” across their horizon. The new season, releasing November 26, has been promoted by many advertisements throughout the media, but the campaign was lucky, as Mother Nature was also attempting to get fans excited for the new season!
As rare as this occurrence is, it has been happening several times throughout the past couple of years. Our sun is at the maximum phase of its 11-year activity cycle, making these coronal mass ejections occur more often and widely. These light shows have performed in skies as far south as Florida and Alabama, and space experts say there are more light shows to come.
As cool as it would be for this to be a crossover from an alternate dimension, this weather phenomenon is pretty common on Earth, known as Aurora or the Northern Lights. Aurora is caused by charged particles from the sun that are carried by solar wind and trapped momentarily by Earth’s magnetic field in the polar regions (North and South Poles). The particles mix with Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere, and the transfer of energy causes them to glow as light. In the days before these lights were visible on Earth, the sun released multiple bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections. This strong solar activity eventually reached Earth’s magnetic field, creating a Geostorm. This is why we were able to see the Aurora even though we aren’t at the poles.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Wednesday night that this Geomagnetic storm reached G4 storm levels which is typically considered severe. Besides being able to see it, this Geostorm has little to no effect on us. NOAA did warn of the possibility of more frequent voltage control problems or possible effects to satellite operations due to the impacts on the magnetic field. Historically there have been much more powerful Geostorms. Like in 1859, when a solar storm displayed auroras as far south as Hawaii and set telegraph lines on fire. Or in 1972, when a solar storm may have detonated magnetic U.S. Sea mines off the coast of Vietnam. Space weather experts aren’t’ able to predict a storm months in advance, but they are able to identify solar outburst once they have left the sun.
The view we received on Tuesday evening was not the same as somewhere more up north, such as Alaska. We only got to see the “top half” of the Aurora, which was in the upper atmosphere, creating a red hue. In Alaska, people can observe the Solar Flares in the lower atmosphere, where the higher levels of oxygen produce green and purple hues. These flares dance and wiggle like ribbons in the night sky.
Several news outlets from Austin and San Antonio shared that people from South-Central Texas could capture the northern lights with their phone cameras using the longer exposure setting. Just like stars, light pollution makes it harder to see the Aurora due to a “sky glow” it produces, so photos will turn out clearer further away from cities. Many Austinites posted their own photos of the Aurora on social media, sharing breathtaking sights of this rare occurrence.