Be on the lookout for another northern lights display this week
CBC
If all goes well, Canadians may once again see the night sky erupt in a multitude of colours.
The sun has been very active over the past few days, sending out several strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which can produce the northern lights.
Our star goes through an 11-year cycle when activity on its surface rises and falls, called solar maximums and solar minimums. Currently the sun is at solar maximum.
When this happens, the sun's surface is pockmarked with sunspots, cooler areas that have complicated magnetic fields. When these magnetic fields get entangled they can burst free, resulting in a solar flare.
Often, these flares are followed by CMEs, huge bursts of charged particles — think billions of tons of material.
This is just what happened over the weekend.
"Basically, the sun's woken up from a bit of a sleep," said Chris Ratzlaff, a seasoned aurora chaser from Airdrie, Alta.
"It's been relatively quiet, but now seems to have woken up with an abrupt start."
Over the weekend, the sun produced several mid-class M-flares (X-flares are the strongest) and two CMEs, both of which are heading our way.
But the sun didn't stop there. The next day, several more CMEs were released, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SPWC), which issued a geomagnetic storm watch, indicating that the effects of all this activity will soon be felt.
The storm could hit Earth tonight, potentially creating bright northern lights, or aurora borealis. However the chances increase on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Natural Resources Canada is also forecasting potential storm levels for lower latitudes, south of the polar region.
The last major solar storm to hit Earth was on the night of May 10-11. That night, two CMEs from X-flares slammed into Earth, producing an incredible display of both northern and southern lights that were seen across the globe.
The current heightened activity on the sun — which is still ongoing — is similar, but also different.