There’s a chance that the night sky could put on a show for us over the coming days.
The reason is due to a few coronal mass ejections (CME) — an eruption of particles from the sun — as well as a few mid-class solar flares from a sunspot. We get the northern lights, or aurora, when these particles interact with our magnetic field.
READ MORE: Why do we get the northern lights?
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Increasing the chances this weekend: the way the solar wind is acting. The sun blows off its energy and particles into space along the solar wind.
This week the solar wind produced something called a co-rotating interaction region. This is an area where the speeds of the solar wind vary. When they catch up to each other the plasma particles pile up and produce a kind of shock wave that increases our chance for aurorae.
READ MORE: How solar storms could leave us in the dark
According to NASA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, there is increased chance that of geomagnetic activity (which is why we get the northern lights) on Oct. 2 with some storming and the arrival of the CME around 2 a.m. EDT.
Another chance is in the evening of Oct. 3.
If you can, try to get outside to a dark place to catch them.
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