Northern lights visible in New Mexico

The red glow of the northern lights could be seen in New Mexico on Thursday night, even in Albuquerque. Watchers with cameras could capture even more of the aurora’s show, the ripple of green and purple in the sky. The lovely sight can come with some negative side effects.

The aurora is magnetic disturbances that come from a geomagnetic storm. The sun blasts out a billion tons of gas, like a big magnet into space, said William Murtagh, program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center. The interaction of the magnetic field and solar material with Earth’s magnetic barrier causes the Aurora Borealis — northern lights — and the Aurora Australis — southern lights.

New Mexicans were able to see the aurora earlier in the year as well when a G5 electromagnetic storm in May caused the aurora to be visible far south. The storm’s strength is measured on a scale of 1 to 5. The last G5 before that was 21 years ago in 2003. Thursday’s storm was a strong G4, said Murtagh.

Thursday night was the peak of this geomagnetic storm, but New Mexicans had a chance of seeing the aurora again Friday night.

The aurora is a phenomenon that operates on an 11-year cycle, and that cycle is at a peak. Up to 50 G4 storms can be expected in that 11-year cycle, and most are during the three- to four-year solar maximum. That solar maximum for this cycle began last year, so more active storms can be expected in the coming years.

This period of the solar cycle has been more active than originally predicted six years ago, so there are more times when the aurora is manifesting, said Shawn Dahl, Space Weather Prediction Center service coordinator.

“The aurora is being seen much farther south than we would normally expect, and what people are generally seeing, and especially capturing with their digital cameras, is that red aurora up in the sky,” Dahl said. “And I imagine that’s what they saw, mostly, in New Mexico. That’s because that’s so much higher up in the atmosphere.”

The red aurora is almost twice as high as the mainstream aurora — the green and purple bottles of light.

The Space Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, focuses not just on predicting auroras, but on notifying critical infrastructure operators of the geomagnetic storm in advance. The interaction with Earth’s magnetic fields produces electrical currents, which flow into the ground into conductive material like salt water and certain types of soil, Murtagh said.

Those currents can then flow up into infrastructure like the electric power grid, disrupting power grids. When grid operators get advance warning, they can take action to mitigate the effects. Auroras are very difficult to predict, and the nightmare scenario for forecasters is an unexpectedly strong electromagnetic storm that they are unable to predict affecting electric grids and other technology.

“In March of 1989, one of these big magnetic storms brought the electric power grid down in the whole province of Quebec and Montreal,” Murtagh said.

Satellites operating in lower Earth orbit, such as Starlink, can be affected by the magnetic disruptions as well, as can anyone using precision GPS.

May’s electromagnetic storm impacted farmers, Murtagh said, because the day of the storm was ideal for planting across larges swaths of the U.S. But precision GPS that the farmers were relying on failed because of the electromagnetic storm, preventing planting.

Higher radiation levels can also occur during the storms so airlines and astronauts sometimes take precautions to avoid more radiation exposure.

While the strength of auroras are difficult to predict, when one is predicted, cloud cover and light pollution both make it harder to view. Remote areas with clear skies will make the aurora easier to see.

“I just wish the readers good luck in seeing it. I love when I talk to people that have seen the aurora. It’s magical for so many people,” Murtagh said. “There’s a whole tourism industry beginning now to go north to Alaska, to the Scandinavian countries, to Canada, to see the aurora. And it is awe-inspiring, for sure, when you get to see it in all its glory. So it’s a worthy quest, is what I say, to see the aurora.”