17 states in the United States or visible auroras, solar storms entering the atmosphere, Earth, United States, appearance, activity, sun, and aurora
Aurora is usually only visible in Alaska in the United States. However, as solar activity enters an active period, auroras are expected to appear in the night sky of 17 states in the United States on July 13th local time.
According to the Associated Press, the School of Geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks predicts that aurora will appear in the night sky in many parts of the United States on the 13th. On that night, in addition to Alaska, which had higher latitudes, auroras were also visible in 16 states with relatively lower latitudes in the United States, including Maine, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, and other places. Aurora will also appear at night in many parts of Canada, including Vancouver at lower latitudes.
The Space Weather Forecast Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States said that viewing auroras from cities is better, and the best window for viewing auroras is from 22:00 on the 13th to 2am on the 14th local time.
After a solar storm occurs, a large number of charged particles released by coronal mass ejections collide with the magnetic field near the Earth's north and south poles, enter the Earth's atmosphere, and interact with various gases in the atmosphere to produce auroras. Solar storms are intense eruptive activities of the sun, mainly manifested as three closely related eruptive activities: prominences, flares, and coronal mass ejections.
The global magnetic field index Kp value is usually used to measure the strength of geomagnetic storms caused by charged particles colliding with the Earth's magnetic field. The Kp value ranges from 0 to 9, and the larger the value, the stronger the geomagnetic storm and the higher the likelihood of aurora appearing. The School of Geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks predicted that on the 13th, when auroras appeared in many parts of the United States, the Kp value would be 6.
Due to the current active solar period, there have been frequent occurrences of auroras in many parts of the Earth in recent times. In late April this year, brilliant auroras appeared in the night sky in many parts of Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania, and even appeared in some low latitude areas such as New Mexico in the United States.
According to research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, solar activity has entered this active period since 2019, expected to last for 11 years. The agency predicts that solar activity will reach its most active state in this cycle in 2024.
