Here’s where Americans can see the northern lights on New Year’s Eve

It seems that the Sun is in a festive mood: A strong geomagnetic storm watch is in place for the next day, increasing the probability of aurora – a spectacle of the northern lights – on New Year’s Eve.

The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Forecast Center has published a geomagnetic storm watch for December 31st, based on a coronal mass ejection – an eruption on the surface of the sun – that occurred on December 29th. The New Year’s storm watch is rated G3, for a severe storm. According to the SWPC, strong storms can disorient the spacecraft and cause problems with GPS and low-frequency radio navigation systems. Auroras are expected “over many of the northern states and some of the lower Midwest to Oregon,” according to the alert. But don’t let that put you off if you’re further south; space weather experts say that new cell phone camera technology is able to pick up lights even if your eyes can’t see them. So even if the aurora is not expected in your area, it does not hurt to try to photograph it.

Dawn they occur when charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing the gases in our planet’s atmosphere to glow. When solar activity is most extreme, that is, when our host star is throwing material into space in solar flares, it causes bright auroras, sometimes surprisingly close to the equator.

The sun goes through a 11 year solar cycleat the maximum of which space-time tends to be more intense. There are about 200 G3 geomagnetic storms per solar cycle, and the Sun is somewhere around its maximum right now, so many significant geomagnetic storms happened this year. In May, the Earth felt the strongest geomagnetic storm to hit the planet in 20 years, which sent auroras across the skies as far south as Florida and Texas.

The SWPC too announced two strong radio blackout events on Monday due to a pair of flares on the Sun. The effects of the flares could include signal loss in high-frequency communication bands on Earth Day, the alert noted, although the associated coronal mass ejection was “determined not to have a component directed to Earth”.

Alongside the G3 storm watch is a G1 (or lower) storm watch in place for New Year’s Day, with the possibility of an alert upgrade to a G2 storm watch. Space weather researchers cannot assess the exact levels of geomagnetic disruption until the Sun’s charged particles are within 1 million kilometers (1.61 million miles) of Earth, or about 30-60 minutes from arrival on Earth. “Neither CME is expected to be a direct hit,” according to the storm watch warning, “which makes forecasting intensity even more difficult.”

Auroras are best seen with a clear sky away from prominent light sources. In other words, if you’re trying to catch Earth’s natural light show, it’s best to do so away from the artificial New Year’s light shows. See you all in 2025 for another dynamic year under the auspices of our exploding star.