The northern lights will be visible across northern New England Thursday night.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a geomagnetic storm watch as soon as Wednesday night, our skies in northern New England will remain cloudy in much of the northeast through early Thursday afternoon.
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However, our opportunity to see the aurora brightens up Thursday night, when a stronger geomagnetic storm is expected. We'll see departing clouds through the late evening hours, bringing hope for stargazers.
Being able to see the aurora mainly depends on two factors: your geographic location and the geomagnetic activity.
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Geomagnetic activity represents the degree of disturbance of the earth's magnetic field at the time of the event. We rely on an index called Kp — this number will range from zero to nine and is used to refer the geomagnetic activity in a three-hour period. In order to have a better chance for sight, you'll want to have a Kp of five or greater and be located closer to the poles. Thursday brings KP indexes higher and may run up as high as seven between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Other effects of a geomagnetic storm level G3 (strong) would be expected to be minimal; however, there could be a small impact on power grid fluctuations, satellite irregularities, and radio and GPS signals that may temporarily fail or become weak for the time being.
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An aurora may be seen as far south as Oregon, northern Iowa and Pennsylvania. A G2 (moderate) storm watch has been posted for Aug. 19.
