Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Northern lights might - the operative word is might - be visible in Wisconsin skies tonight

From JSOnline:


The Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis. The Vikings thought it was a road to the Gods, but we now know exactly what those beautiful lights actually are. Buzz60

Northern lights are seen in a 30-second exposure taken at Elsworth Park in Bayside on Oct. 24, 2011.(Photo: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Not saying it will happen, but scientists are predicting this evening could be a good night in Wisconsin to see the pulsing, lava lamp-esque phenomena in the sky known as the northern lights.
The Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday that shows Wisconsin smack dab in the center of the most likely area for the aurora borealis, the fancy name for northern lights.
If the lights deign to show up, the good news is that night skies throughout most of Wisconsin will be clear tonight, though some parts of northwestern Wisconsin could get high clouds, said Marcia Cronce, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Sullivan.
What sometimes looks like a neon blanket thrown against the night sky is actually electrically charged particles from the sun colliding with gaseous particles entering the Earth's atmosphere. While green and pink are the most common colors, the northern lights can feature quite a few more hues including red, yellow, blue and violet.
The lights can also be seen in the southern hemisphere where they're called aurora australis.

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