Look Up! Dazzling Northern Lights May Light Up New York Sky

We may get lucky and catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights over New York.

The Northern Lights or aurora borealis as they're technically called, will light up the night sky over the Northeast from Wednesday, March 30 to early Thursday, March 31.

Credit - Shane Muckey

When to See

You'll need a dark sky between 10 PM and 1 AM to see the lights the best. Charles Deehr, a professor emeritus and aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute, says you'll need a little patience too.

"Active periods are typically about 30 minutes long and occur every two hours, if the activity is high. The aurora is a sporadic phenomenon, occurring randomly for short periods or perhaps not at all."

Unfortunately the forecast in Central New York is calling for rain overnight and mostly cloudy skies, not ideal Northern Lights viewing weather.

You can see the Northern Lights without leaving your house. The Canadian Space Agency has a live camera of the skies above Yellowknife, one of the best places to see the spectacular light show.

Credit - Shane Muckey

What Are Northern Lights

The aurora borealis are caused by interactions between the solar wind, which is the stream of charged particles emanating from the sun, and the Earth's magnetic field, according to Space.com.

Credit - Shane Muckey

NY Northern Lights

Northern Lights in New York aren't uncommon. Shane Muckey shot some amazing photos of the lights North of Pulaski on Lake Ontario a few years ago. "I've never witnessed anything like it," he said. "It was the most incredible show I've ever seen."

Kurt Garnder captured the beauty in Old Forge around this time last year. Take a look at all their stunning photos.

Photographer Captures Stunning Northern Lights Show in Adirondacks

Shane Muckey captured stunning pictures of the Northern Lights in the Adirondacks.

Northern Lights In Old Forge

It's not really common to see northern lights in Central New York, but photographer Kurt Gardner captured the beautiful conformation of them near Old Forge. We're usually too far south of the North Pole, but sometimes we get lucky.

Auroras are caused by the Sun. The Sun is not only hot and bright, but it's also full of energy and small particles that fall toward Earth. NASA says the protective magnetic field around Earth shields us from most of the energy and particles, and we don't even notice them.

The amount of energy the Sun sends, depends on the streaming solar wind and solar storms. During one kind of solar storm called a coronal mass ejection, the Sun expels a huge bubble of electrified gas that can travel through space at high speeds.

When a solar storm comes toward us, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into Earth's atmosphere. There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple. [NASA]

Filed Under: Aurora Borealis, nasa, northern lights, space

Categories: NY News