The Earth was hit on Monday by an intense solar storm that could bring the northern lights to night skies further south than normal, a US agency announced.
Conditions of a level-four geomagnetic storm – on a scale of five – were observed on Monday, according to a specialized center at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
These conditions may persist for several hours, but were not expected to increase further in intensity, NOAA added in a statement.
“A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen faintly as far south as Alabama and northern California,” NOAA said in a statement, referring to US states.
The new solar storm is caused by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are explosions of particles leaving the Sun. When these particles arrive on Earth, they disrupt its magnetic field.
On Sunday, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick published on X a superb photo of the aurora borealis – or Northern Lights – taken from the International Space Station, where he is currently stationed.
But solar or geomagnetic storms can also trigger undesirable effects.
