A view of the Aurora Borealis will once again be visible in the Austin area tonight, the National Weather Service confirmed.
“Aurora forecasting is a little tricky,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Harrison Tran said. “But we are seeing an increase in activity in the Earth’s atmosphere … so we are at least on track to see some additional aurora tonight, and it could be as intense as yesterday.”
Tran said the view of the northern lights in Texas is thanks to a recent series of “coronal mass ejections,” which are sudden bursts of solar material that get sent from the solar surface into space. Those bursts are not always aimed toward Earth, but when they are, the Earth’s magnetic field guides those high-energy particles toward the atmosphere, mainly toward the North and South Poles.
“In most cases, the aurora are generally only visible if you’re closer to the polar regions,” Tran said. “But recently we’ve had some strong, strong emissions of solar material aimed toward Earth, and so that’s producing these stronger displays of aurora, and then that’s visible as far south as here in Texas.”
A glimpse of the aurora in Texas is rare. Tran said it’s due to a combination of favorable weather conditions, “well-timed solar events” and luck.
“We’re close to actually the peak of the current solar cycle,” Tran said. “So this is when the sun is most active, it’s when it's producing more solar flare and more of these coronal mass ejections. It’s kind of a coincidence that the latest burst of solar matter has been aimed toward Earth.”
The view in Central Texas won’t be quite the same as in Scandinavia. Texans will only see the top half of the aurora, where solar particles are interacting with a thin layer of oxygen in the upper atmosphere, producing a red hue. Closer to the North Pole, viewers can see solar particles interact lower in the atmosphere, where different levels of oxygen and nitrogen produce green and purple hues.
Harrison said the best viewing conditions will be after sunset but before midnight, when the weather service is forecasting low cloud coverage and fog.
The lights will be visible low in the northern sky, and therefore could also be blocked by buildings and light pollution if you live near the city center.
But Tran said you don’t need to travel far from downtown to get a glimpse.
“I live in suburban South Austin, where there are plenty of city lights visible from there, but even then you can see the aurora even just with your naked eye,” Tran said. “I would encourage anyone who has the chance to go see it since it is quite rare. It’s not something you see everyday.”
