In Photos: Northern lights make an appearance over the weekend

So it wasn’t quite the light show we’d hoped for, but it was something.

It was expected that a coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted from the sun would hit Earth and give us the chance of a great northern lights display, but unfortunately, the sun’s particles missed Earth.

However, for those who happened to be outside Saturday night and Sunday night, they got a bit of a nice display.

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Even though the CME didn’t co-operate, our magnetic field did, tipping south and allowing the solar wind — along with its usual particles — to interact with it, giving us the northern lights.

The Kp Index, which measures geomagnetic activity rose to a 6 (on a scale of 1 to 10). For most of Canada, if the magnetic field dips south and there is a Kp of about 4 or higher, you can get quite a show (with the exception of southern Ontario where it may be a little more challenging to see).

But on Saturday night, early Sunday, it didn’t matter: the aurora were seen as far south as the northern United States.

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And from space, the view of the show was breathtaking.

https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly/status/650655326769938433/photo/1

The chance of solar flares — which are linked with CMEs — is low.

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