As we welcomed the New Year with fireworks and immense joy, the skies lit up in celebration over the Northern Hemisphere with a spectacular display of its own – the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis.
The phenomenon lit up the night sky after two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) collided with the Earth’s magnetic field, creating geostorm conditions and painting the sky with a vibrant aurora borealis display as far away as the United States ( California), Austria and Germany, according to Space.com.
The storms lit up the sky all night on New Year’s Eve, treating us to a natural and dazzling display of fireworks.
The CME hit the Earth’s magnetic field at 16:21 GMT on December 31, and a second CME hit later that night.
When they hit the Earth’s magnetic field, they release electrically charged particles called ions that collide with the Earth’s magnetic field. These collisions can create geomagnetic storms, and during these storms, ions collide with atmospheric gases and release energy in the form of light.
The light creates the spectacular northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere and the southern lights or aurora australis in the southern hemisphere.
More light shows may be triggered as the Sun throws a new CME toward Earth. A new aurora borealis show could take over the Northern Hemisphere around January 3 or 4, according to space weather physicist Tamitha Skoff.