The case in summary
Expand/minimize fact box
- A solar storm a couple of days ago will lead to an extra strong aurora this evening.
- Two “flares” on the sun’s surface have led to intense X-ray radiation, which has caused problems with radio communication on Earth.
- The Northern Lights are created by a large cloud of gas that was ejected from the Sun and takes a couple of days to reach Earth.
- A KP index of 7 has been reported, which means that the northern lights can be seen all the way down to Northern Europe if everything goes well.
- For the northern lights to be powerful, the storm’s magnetic field must be correct in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field.
- Whether the northern lights can be seen also depends on whether there is a cloudless sky.
The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by NRK’s journalists before publication.
– It looks very promising. If the weather is clear and you find a dark place, it’s definitely worth getting out.
That’s what Pål Brekke at the Norwegian Space Center says.
But why should the sky be bathed in aurora borealis tonight?
Space scientist Brekke has the answer:
– It was a solar storm that was ejected from the sun a couple of days ago, and will arrive on Earth this evening or tonight.
What makes the night’s northern lights extra powerful is not just one explosion on the sun’s surface, but two.
Space researcher Pål Brekke at the Norwegian Space Center closely monitors the activity on the sun and the impact it has on the earth.
Photo: Halldor Asvall / NRK
Spit out radiation and gas
– There were two “flares” that went off at about the same time on the night of Saturday. Such “flares” consist of intense X-ray radiation.
– The X-ray radiation reached us at the speed of light on the same day, and led to some trouble with radio communication on the sunny side of the earth.
But it is not this radiation that creates the northern lights.
– The spot that is furthest north also spewed out a large cloud of gas. This takes a couple of days to reach us, and it is what creates the northern lights.
The moment the gas was ejected from the sun was captured by a chronograph on board the European Space Agency’s SOHO satellite on Saturday night:
Unusually high aurora warning
To say something about how far south the northern lights reach, a so-called KP index is used.
It measures magnetic activity in the Earth’s magnetic field.
The scale goes from 0 to 9 and tells us how wide the aurora oval is.
The higher the KP number, the greater the chance of seeing the northern lights in the south of Norway.
– It is actually registered for KP index 7, says Brekke.
This means that if everything goes well, the northern lights will be able to be seen all the way down to Northern Europe.
Illustration: Brekke / Storm.no
– There has been a KP index of 7 once or twice earlier this winter, but it doesn’t happen very often. That is unusual, says Brekke.
But in order for the Europeans on the continent to also experience the northern lights, things have to work out.
Foto: Norwegian Centre for Space Weather (NOSWE)
– One is that the storm’s magnetic field must be correct in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field. If these are opposite each other, they connect well, and then the northern lights become even more powerful. But we only know that about an hour before it hits the ground, says the space scientist.
The second is naturally whether there is a cloudless sky.
Best in Nordland, Trøndelag and Western Norway
Meteorologist on duty Eldbjørg Moxnes has the answer to who gets it.
– It looks like someone is getting cracks in the cloud cover, she says.
Eldbjørg Moxnes says it is Nordland, Trøndelag and Vestland counties that get the best aurora conditions on Sunday evening.
Photo: Meteorological Institute
– In the farthest north it looks quite cloudy, but if you come south of Bodø it can be quite fine in Nordland and down towards Trøndelag. It may not be completely cloudless, but there may be periods with little cloud.
Møre and Romsdal will get more clouds, says the meteorologist. But further south in Vestland county, things immediately look better.
– It looks like there will be few clouds there. The northern lights can probably come down to around 60 degrees north, so around Bergen. So north of Bergen there may be opportunities. At least there are few clouds there.
YR’s northern lights warning for Bergen shows that high activity and zero percent cloud cover are expected around midnight – in other words, good conditions for the northern lights.
Graphics: Screenshot Yr.no
The Easterners, on the other hand, seem to miss out on this round of Northern Lights.
– There are not very good opportunities in Østafjell. There is a lot of cloudy weather there, says Moxnes and adds:
– The only thing is the north of Eastern Norway, i.e. from around Lillehammer and northwards, which may get less cloud cover during the night.
The Northern Lights showed their best side at Stårheim in Nordfjord. Vestland county is one of the places that can get both cloudless skies and a lot of aurora activity on Sunday evening.
Photo: Eva Kristin Holmøyvik Starheim
Published 24.03.2024, at 17.21 Updated 24.03.2024, at 17.40