Breaking News: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced a G3 Geomagnetic Storm is currently active.
It’s a beautiful, sunny day in the D.C.-area, weather-wise. But in the realm of near-Earth space and our planet’s magnetic field, a strong Geomagnetic Storm WATCH has been issued by NOAA for Levels G2 (Moderate) and G3 (Strong). The storms are forecast for Sunday and Monday and MAY produce aurora — possibly making the northern lights visible in the U.S. Sunday night.
Aurora may be seen as low as Alabama and northern California.
From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):
Space Weather Message Code: WATA50
Serial Number: 74
Issue Time: 2024 Mar 23 1840 UTC (Note: Subtract four hours from UTC to convert to EDT)
WATCH: Geomagnetic Storm Category G3 Predicted
Highest Storm Level Predicted by Day:
Mar 24: G2 (Moderate) Mar 25: G3 (Strong) Mar 26: G1 (Minor)
This supersedes any/all prior watches in effect.
NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found online.
Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
- Induced Currents — Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices.
- Spacecraft — Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur.
- Navigation — Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur.
- Radio — HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent.
Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon.
Will the northern lights be visible from DC region?
The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center Aurora Dashboard (Experimental) provides a two-day prediction of aurora. Northern U.S. states have a good chance of seeing aurora Sunday night but the D.C. region’s more southerly location makes it more “iffy.”
However, it is still worth taking a look to the North from a dark sky location with a clear Northern horizon to see if any aurora are visible. You may be up anyway to watch Sunday night’s penumbral lunar eclipse. The bright Full Worm Moon will also impact our ability to see dimmer aurora displays.
- Shaded worm moon is prelude to solar eclipse
- Where to buy solar eclipse glasses as fakes and counterfeits emerge
How to view aurora
Our best bet is to monitor the NOAA and space related social media sites such as EarthSky.org and Space.com for updates. The current forecast shows the aurora will be visible to northern states. It will be worth taking a look to the North from a dark sky site with a clear horizon.
You might be able to detect some color in the sky if aurora are present, but they would likely be low on the Northern horizon. Wide field binoculars will help your search.
Use a camera or smartphone that can take exposures of several seconds — including using “Night Sky” or “Low Light” settings if your camera has them — of the Northern horizon. Steady the camera or use a tripod for best image results. The camera may capture aurora that your eyes did not.
The D.C. region had several aurora events visible in March, April and November 2023.
I check Spaceweather.com every day just as I do my local weather. It has a daily snapshot of what the space weather in the solar system is going to be like and a current image of the sun. Sunday’s posting explains what happened on the Sun the past few days to cause our current space weather.
My image of the sun on March 24 shows those bad boy sunspots AR3614 and AR3615.
Space weather’s impact
With our terrestrial weather being such a factor in our daily lives here in the DMV, and frankly, the rest of the world, we are also directly affected by space weather which can produce a variety of events, including Sunday’s geomagnetic storm and the aurora.
Space weather, like our terrestrial weather, is caused by Earth’s interaction with our star, the sun. We know it will be there every new day and count on it for life-giving warmth and energy. We also have become accustomed to it being well behaved. What many people may not know is that our sun undergoes an 11-year solar cycle that can affect space weather throughout our solar system.
Our sun is a 4.5 billion year old star that we have been monitoring since Galileo. Today, humans have a fleet of spacecraft that monitor the sun and space weather 24/7/365.
The sun is currently in solar cycle 25 and is progressing toward solar maximum which is predicted to occur in July 2025. As the sun approaches solar maximum it produces more sunspots and solar events which produce space weather events like Sunday’s Level G3 Geomagnetic Storm.
The sun had an episode of disturbed behavior in 1859 that if it were to occur today, could adversely affect us (if we were unprepared).
On Sept. 1, 1859, the sun experienced a solar storm episode that was observed by solar astronomer Richard Carrington that ended up bearing his name, “the Carrington Event.” This was a watershed event in solar astronomy and also the sun’s affect on the Earth as nothing like it has not been seen since — thankfully.
If a Carrington-level solar event were to happen today, the affect on modern society’s infrastructure could be potentially catastrophic, especially on the electrical grid which powers everything else. If you think this is unlikely or too sci-fi to be true, I suggest you read the report by the National Academies of Science published in 2008.
Last year the sun had a very powerful space weather event on March 12, which fortunately for us, occurred on the far side of the sun.
You listen to WTOP for “traffic and weather together on the eights.” Maybe now you will want to include a check on space weather too, as part of your daily routine.
Follow Greg Redfern on Facebook, X and his daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
