LONG ISLAND, NY — Holes in Earth's magnetic field could cause more frequent auroral displays, or aurora borealis, throughout the month and could even be seen as far south as Long Island, where auroral displays are uncommon, but not unprecedented.
Space meteorologists expect March to be the best month in two decades to see the curtains of mostly green but also pink, purple and red that are usually confined to areas around the Earth's North Pole.
When conditions are right, the phenomenon can be seen as far south as Florida and Arizona, Business Insider reports.
There are a few reasons why March could be an opportunity for more Americans to see the northern lights.
One is that solar activity, which plays a critical role in the appearance of the northern lights, increases around the time of the seasonal equinoxes (the spring or vernal equinox is on Tuesday, March 19). Historically, March has seen more auroras than any other month, although October, the first full month after the fall or autumnal equinox, is a close second, according to a NASA study of 75 years of data.
April and September were the third and fourth busiest months for auroras.
The largest aurora event of 2023 occurred last March, when a series of solar activities triggered auroras strong enough to be visible in places along the country's southern border.
Geomagnetic storms on the surface of our star cause coronal holes that eject electronically charged particles that are carried millions of miles by the solar wind into Earth's magnetic field. Around the time of the equinoxes, the sun and the Earth's poles are aligned almost vertically, which allows more of the wind to pass through.
Second, the peak of the “solar maximum” of an 11-year solar cycle in which the sun's magnetic fields reverse between the North and South poles is expected to occur this year. Like the Earth, the sun has negative and positive polarity. When the polarity is reversed, the negative becomes positive and the positive becomes negative, and this creates more sunspots and space weather.
The frequency of CMEs, which are huge bubbles of coronal plasma spiraled by magnetic field lines, varies during each solar cycle—about once a week at solar minimum, but an average of two or three a day at solar maximum.
The current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 25, is expected to reach solar maximum in 2024, a year ahead of schedule, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
People who live in places like Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, which are near the Earth's North Pole, have the best chance of seeing the ethereal auroras. But powerful eruptions have made the northern lights more common in recent months, sending the northern lights far south to states like Florida, Texas and Arizona.
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect the sun's magnetic poles, rather than Earth's, reversing at solar maximum.
