Aurora is Visible throughout Canada and Alaska This New Year

Aurora is Visible throughout Canada and Alaska This New Year

The sun on December 28 emitted a big burst of gas and magnetic field called a coronal mass ejection. And scientists predicted that the stellar bump after hitting earth will result in the Aurora borealis commonly known as the Northern Lights.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also issued warning that a strong geomagnetic storm of a level G3 will hit earth, due to a strong coronal mass ejection on the sun on Monday.

According to, “A coronal mass ejection, a giant cloud of solar plasma drenched with magnetic field lines that are blown away from the sun during strong, long-duration solar flares and filament eruptions”.

The Aurora Notify website revealed that the Northern Light will most probably be visible all over the Canada and Alaska and in some parts of the United States.

People interested in seeing this amazing show can get themselves registered online to get alerts or check for updated forecasts for when the Aurora peaks in a particular area. Individuals can register on the Aurora Service website, NOAA’s space weather website and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

Experts said there are a number of spots where viewers can comfortably enjoy viewing the show. Some of such places include northwest Oregon and southwest Washington, including L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, Vista House at Crown Point in the Columbia River Gorge or the Cascade Range in southern Oregon.

Such strong solar storm can cause several problems on earth like it can make the power grids go offline, failure in communications etc.

In a statement provided to Telegraph, the Northern Lights could put in a New Year’s Eve appearance over parts of England and Scotland, in a special addition to traditional Hogmanay celebrations. Forecasters have predicted that the latest wave of solar activity, caused by an ejection of particles from the Sun’s surface on December 28, could result in displays of the aurora borealis over the UK tonight.

Models and predictions released by the Space Weather Prediction Center at the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that the activity could cover Scotland and northern England on New Year's Eve, although predictions about sightings in more specific locations are difficult to make.

CNET report said, it seems the sun likes to ring in the new year with a bang. Last year our star sent us an intense solar flare in the days leading up to Christmas. This week it let out a blast of the particles that could show up as auroras when they collide with Earth's atmosphere, setting up a potential light show for Wednesday and perhaps even spilling into New Year's Eve.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a major solar flare on December 28 that created a coronal mass ejection, or CME. When a CME makes it way toward Earth, it can create so-called geomagnetic storms above our planet. These storms don't pose any threat, but they can sometimes disrupt communications technology, particularly those that use high frequencies like HAM radios. For most people, the only real impact of this CME will be the potential light show it creates.

In a statement provided to Discovery, although the flare certainly wasn’t of the strength of a major X-class flare (the most powerful class of flare), this event did trigger a significant coronal mass ejection (CME) that is currently racing in the direction of Earth. Space weather forecasters predict a direct hit with Earth’s magnetic field on or around New Year’s Eve, potentially sparking some natural fireworks in the upper atmosphere just in time for 2016.

“Sunspot AR2374 has an unstable ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field that could explode again in the hours ahead,” writes NASA’s Tony Phillips for “NOAA forecasters estimate a 55 percent chance of additional M-class flares and a 10 percent chance of X-flares on Dec. 28th.”