The Miami Valley has a legitimate shot to see the northern lights on Sunday and Monday nights, according to Storm Center 7’s Nick Dunn.
Ohio’s chance to see northern lights is thanks to a strong coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun that resulted from a strong solar flare on Friday evening.
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Dunn says the core of the CME may miss Earth, but it could give Ohio a chance to see the northern lights.
The sun is over 90 million miles away from Earth, so it takes days for the CME to arrive. This makes modeling and predicting when and where the northern lights could appear difficult.
The chance to see the northern lights depends on lots of factors, a subtle change in timing or strength of the geomagnetic storms can help or hurt our chances to see the northern lights, Dunn says.
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The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Sunday and Monday. This classification and the K-index are not the only tools used to gauge our northern lights chances, Dunn says, proton levels and how the solar wind field is interacting with any geomagnetic activity as it arrives on Earth are also factors.
At this time, there is not an expectation to repeat our show from May 2024, according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.
What you can do to have the best chances of seeing or photographing the northern lights:
Place yourself in a dark area away from city lights with a clear view of the northern horizon. This is critical since we look north to see them.
To take the best photos, a professional camera will ultimately be best. However, if you have a smartphone that has a night mode setting, you can use that. Ensure you increase the exposure setting to allow your camera to see better in low light situations. Our eyes have a hard time seeing colors at night in a very dark area, which is where your camera comes into play.
This is how the Northern Lights happen. (Storm Center 7 Weather Specialist Nick Dunn).
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