HELENA — Did you catch the northern lights last night? Numerous Montanans headed out Tuesday night to see Big Sky Country put on a show.
“This was really the first time I really saw them, and it was quite special,” said Katie Loveland.
“Absolutely fabulous. And the sense of variety with different colors,” said Bruce Kilgour.
“And if I get the chance to get hold of those lights, I'll be super excited to see that,” said Aseem Girdhar, who’s visiting from California.
The northern lights were spotted all across the United States on Tuesday night as a strong solar storm impacted Earth. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) anticipates aurora activity to continue into Wednesday night.
Why was it such an amazing display? MTN Chief Meteorologist Curtis Grevenitz breaks down some of the science behind the lights.
“It was one of the stronger storms that we have seen in quite a long time," said Grevenitz. "There was just a ton of energy that hit the earth's atmosphere, and that created the lights as far south as the southern parts of the country here.”
Sunspots have produced three very strong Coronal Mass Ejections. These "ejections" or "solar storms" travel through space and eventually collide with Earth after about a couple of days.
The color depends on which atmospheric element the solar particles interact with. Green is when those particles interact with oxygen at lower altitudes, while pink is when they interact with oxygen at higher altitudes.
“There are explosions on the surface of the sun that release charged particles throughout space," Grevenitz said. "They hit the poles, these charged particles then excite gases way on up in the atmosphere and create the northern lights.”
In case you missed last night's show, Curtis says you can still catch them Wednesday night, but there may be some cloud cover making it harder to see.
