As the sun hits the pale blue dot with a geomagnetic storm, earthlings in the northern states of the US can witness the night sky glow with the Aurora Borealis, aka the Northern Lights.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s forecast, the Kp index for yesternight was five out of nine, signaling brighter northern lights.
The phenomenon is courtesy of the coronal mass ejection that escaped the Sun between October 11 and 13.
The Aurora Borealis may be visible across the states of the U.S.-Canadian border and also in the Midwest and possibly in the bordering states in the Northeast.
Some of the states where it can still be visible include Washington, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, New York, Vermont, and Alaska, among others.
Northern Lights Forecast: Aurora Could Appear In These 15 States On Thursday As Geomagnetic Storms Impact Earthhttps://t.co/acR7qjQ6jd pic.twitter.com/DkVNjIexcq— Forbes (@Forbes) October 16, 2025
Coronal mass ejections are merely jets of plasma that burst out from the Sun’s corona, which is its outermost atmosphere. When it interacts with Earth’s atmosphere, the material causes geomagnetic storms, which are scaled by NOAA from G1 or minor, to G5, indicating extreme. While a G1 solar storm at Kp 5 can cause minor grid fluctuations, it affects migratory animals severely. A solar storm of the category G5, on the other hand, can collapse the power grid, causing damage to spacecrafts in orbit, degrading satellite navigation, and causing atypical high-altitude aurora borealis, which is visible in lower altitudes as well.
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