How to Watch the Northern Lights for the Second Time this Week
The northern lights are predicted to be "quite pleasing to look at" due to their Kp index forecast of a five out of nine on Saturday, June 14
The colorful spectacle is expected to be visible this weekend due to the arrival of a coronal hole high-speed stream a few days prior, according to NOAA
States that don't typically get the chance to spot the northern lights, like New York, might be able to catch a glimpseJust when you thought the galaxy couldn't get any more dazzling!
A little over 48 hours after the beautiful Strawberry Moon lit up the night sky on June 11, the northern lights are predicted to color the cosmos with a second aurora display this week.
A moderate geomagnetic storm (G2) watch has been issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s forecast for Saturday, June 14 due to the arrival of a coronal hole (CH) high-speed stream (HSS) a few days prior.
NOAA explains, "A coronal hole is a less dense area in the solar corona. They appear dark because they are cooler. Solar wind escapes from these features at higher speeds, known as High-Speed Streams. When they arrive at Earth, escalated geomagnetic activity may result."
This time, the northern lights are predicted to be visible from Earth in various locations across the United States. Even a few states that don't normally have the chance to spot the auras, like New York, might be able to catch a glimpse.
The upcoming auroras come shortly after the northern lights were forecast for the night of June 7. They were forecast for 15 states.
Read on for how to watch the upcoming northern lights!
As a result of the moderate geomagnetic storm (G2) watch in effect, NOAA predicts the northern lights to be visible from Earth on the night of Saturday, June 14 into the early morning on Sunday, June 15.
The auroras are forecast to be a five on the Kp scale of zero to nine. This means, the light display can be "quite pleasing to look at" if situated in the right spot and the weather conditions align. Should the forecast increase to a six, the colors can be "quite bright and active," per NOAA.
Viewers will have a chance to spot the auroras in the days leading up to June 14, however the forecast isn't as strong. A three out of nine on the Kp scale is forecast for Thursday, June 12 and a four out of nine is forecast for Friday, June 13.
It's best to look for the northern lights in the hours leading up to sunset and right before sunrise. They won't be visible in daylight.
The northern lights predicted for June 14 are expected to be visible from various locations across the United States, including areas that don't typically have the chance to spot them from Earth.
According to NOAA, the northern lights may become visible over some northern and upper Midwest states from New York to Idaho. Keep checking the space organization's website for the most accurate viewing updates as the night gets closer.
No advanced technology is required to view the northern lights. Simply, the naked eye is capable of spotting the colorful display from Earth if the weather conditions cooperate.
It's also recommended to find a viewing area that's away from light pollution, like city lights, that can drown out the colors in the night. Dark areas are optimal for spectating!
Did the northern lights really happen if you didn't take a picture? Several smartphones have a high-tech capability to capture the phenomenon on camera if you toggle on the "Night Mode" setting.
Read the original article on People
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Hurricane forecasters will go without a key tool this season
For the past four years, a fleet of drone vessels has purposefully steered into the heart of hurricanes to gather information on a storm's wind speeds, wave heights and, critically, the complex transfer of heat and moisture between the ocean and the air right above it. These small boats from California-based company Saildrone also film harrowing footage from the ocean surface in the middle of nature's most powerful tempests—videos that are scientifically useful and have also gone viral, giving ordinary people windows into storms. Importantly, Saildrone vessels were being used by federal scientists to improve forecast and warning accuracy. But they won't be in forecasters' suite of tools this year. The company 'was unable to bid' on a contract for this season, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson Keeley Belva told CNN. The reason why concerns the timing of NOAA's solicitation for this season's contract, according to a NOAA employee speaking on condition of anonymity. NOAA sent out its request for contract proposals too late, preventing Saildrone not just from bidding, but from pre-deploying its fleet to multiple launching ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast in time for hurricane season. It's another example among many of the ways the Trump administration has fumbled storm preparedness and response efforts as the season begins, leading to fears of less accurate hurricane projections compared to recent years. The Saildrone news came just as NOAA was roiled by staffing cuts through firings, early retirements and other incentives used to shrink the agency. Morale has plummeted, especially in the wake of the Trump administration's budget proposal that would eliminate the entire branch of the agency that does oceanic and atmospheric research, which could wipe out hurricane research activities if enacted. Even if it isn't, the Trump administration could use other means to implement such steep cuts. Belva did not provide details when asked for specifics about the issuance date for the proposals request and the reasons for the delay given the start of hurricane season on June 1. She cited 'ongoing' discussions with Saildrone about potential future deployments with NOAA. 'NOAA continues to explore the use of other uncrewed systems in meeting the agency's data needs within hard-to-access regions of tropical cyclones during the 2025 season,' Belva added. 'The agency is preparing for the use of uncrewed surface vehicle deployments with industry partners for the 2026 season.' NOAA will still field new technologies this season to gain a better understanding of how hurricanes work and how strong individual storms are, including ultra-high altitude weather balloons, said Joe Cione, the lead meteorologist for emerging technologies at the agency's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. But all of these new tools are aerial assets, not ocean-based, as the saildrones were. With saildrones missing in action this hurricane season, meteorologists will lack continuous, direct observations of hurricanes' strongest winds near the surface of the ocean and temperatures of the warm water that fuels the storms. The agency will still use dropsondes—bundles of sensors that can measure the fierce winds as they fall through the storm after being dropped out of hurricane hunter aircraft. But they only offer a glimpse into a blip of time at a particular location in a storm, whereas the saildrones can loiter for hours or longer, providing rare observations from the lowest level of the atmosphere, said NOAA oceanographer Gregory Foltz. Saildrone observations were set to be piped directly into forecast models through newer, faster processes this year with the goal of boosting accuracy, Foltz said. In addition, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center would have been able to use saildrone data to better determine a storm's structure and intensity when issuing an advisory. The boats had another unexpected benefit: Their dizzying videos helped warn people in harm's way of a storm's ferocity, Foltz said. The videos may play a role in peoples' decisions to evacuate by showing how severe conditions are, he said. NOAA's aerial technology this season will hopefully bolster the data forecasters have to work with. During the next three weeks, NOAA's hurricane hunters will be conducting clear air tests of some of those new platforms. Cione, who focuses on identifying promising technologies for weather research and forecasting at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, touted airborne drones like the Black Swift SØ drone. It weighs just three pounds and will be deployed into storms from the belly of a NOAA WP-3 hurricane hunter aircraft. These drones can fly low in a storm for extended periods, recording winds, temperatures and other parameters in the little-sampled lowest 1,500 feet of a hurricane. 'Our situational awareness goes way up,' Cione said, when readings come back from within this layer of air. Researchers will also be using tiny, light instrument packets known as 'Streamsondes' that can be dropped from an aircraft. These fall more slowly than the standard dropsondes and therefore gather more data. This year, Cione says, researchers may work to 'swarm' Streamsondes, or drop as many as 50 of them in a matter of minutes, into an area of interest within a storm to pinpoint what a hurricane's winds and air pressure are, for example. None of these aerial platforms will provide the clear video feeds that people may have become accustomed to from the saildrones the past four years, though, nor can they reliably measure winds and sea surface temperatures for long periods of time. Ultimately, Foltz said, researchers want to get aerial and ocean-based observations at the same time for a more three-dimensional glimpse into the inner workings of nature's most powerful storms. That includes uncrewed underwater drones collecting data beneath storms, he added. 'We need everything in the atmosphere and the ocean together,' Foltz said. 'That's a big goal of ours.' That won't happen this year, but assuming NOAA's research division still exists next year, it could get closer to being realized in 2026. 'You don't know how important something is until you take it away,' Foltz said of the saildrones' data contributions.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Map Reveals Where To Look for Aurora Over US Tonight As Storm Hits Earth
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Northern Lights could be visible across parts of the U.S. this Friday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has issued a geomagnetic storm warning. Current projections suggest a G2 level storm, moderate in strength, with the potential to pull the northern lights as far south as Idaho and New York. The northern lights have forecast with a "Kp index "rating of 4 which, based on the standard scale of 0 to 9, suggests stargazers can expect "more auroral activity" that has the potential to be "quite pleasing to look at." The agency's forecasts suggested that the phenomena may appear directly over Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. The northern lights are expected to be just as visible on Saturday night with the NOAA forecasting a "coronal hole high speed stream", bringing with it a Kp index of 4 across the same 10 states. A map showing an Aurora viewline for the night of June 13. A map showing an Aurora viewline for the night of June 13. SWPC NOAA How To See the Aurora To ensure you have the best chance of spotting the northern lights Friday and Saturday night NOAA recommends looking skyward either just after sunset, or just before sunrise. It is not visible during daylight hours. According to NOAA, the lights are at their brightest from about 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. local time. "The aurora does not need to be directly overhead but can be observed from as much as a 1,000 km [621 miles] away when the aurora is bright and if conditions are right," the agency explains on its website. The northern lights are easiest to spot in clear weather and in places where the skies are darker—away from sources of light pollution like cities. Stargazers are also advised to find a high vantage point and travel as far north as possible. Pictured: Stock image of the Aurora Borealis over Fairbanks, Alaska. Pictured: Stock image of the Aurora Borealis over Fairbanks, Alaska. ElizabethWhat Causes the Northern Lights? The northern (and southern) lights form when particles from the solar wind excite atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere, causing them to glow. Appearing as curtains of light that trace along the geomagnetic field lines, the aurorae vary in color depending on the particular species of atoms being excited. As Earth's atmospheric composition is dominated by oxygen and nitrogen, aurorae tend to give off a green hue (from the former) or a blue–pink–purple light (from the latter.) The geomagnetic storms forecast for this week are the result of a corotating interaction region—a transition zone produced by the meeting of fast and slow-moving streams in the solar wind. The interaction of the two streams creates a compression region in the solar wind that appears to rotate in step with the sun, hence the name. The fast stream causing this week's corotating interaction region is being powered by a massive hole in the southern hemisphere of the sun's corona, which is presently facing toward Earth. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the northern lights? Let us know via science@
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Deep-sea creature — with feather-like body — is new ocean species. Take a look
The ocean floor is home to a menagerie of odd and peculiar creatures. Now, armed with a remote controlled vehicle, researchers in the South China Sea have discovered another. During surveys from the Institute of Oceanology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers explored a cold seep in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, according to a study published June 12 in the peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys. Cold seeps are cracks in the seafloor where chemicals like hydrogen sulfide and methane leak into the water, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These chemically-rich areas are only habitable for specially adapted animals. Researchers operating the deep-sea submersible FaXian (meaning discovery in Chinese) found a 'rotten piece of wood' about 2,700 feet below the surface, according to the study. Sticking out of the wood and flowing in the water were two 'unusual,' feather-like creatures attached to the rotting material by thick stalks, researchers said. Genetic testing confirmed the stalked creatures belong to a new species of crinoid, also known as sea lilies or feather stars, according to NOAA. Endoxocrinus kexuei, or the Kexue crinoid, was named after the ocean vessel 'Kexue' from the Chinese Academy of Science for its 'significant contribution to the biological research in the South China Sea,' researchers said. The crinoid has between 20 and 22 arms that can reach up to 5.5 inches long, according to the study. The animal's stalk is shorter than its arms, about 2.5 inches long, researchers said. The crinoids are 'pale yellow-pink in fresh samples,' then white in preservation, according to the study. Crinoids appear plant-like but are animals with digestive and nervous systems, according to NOAA. Their bodies are made of small calcium carbonate plates held together by ligaments and muscles. Some crinoids have as few as five arms, while others can have as many as 180, NOAA says. 'All crinoids are suspension feeders, subsisting on the smorgasbord of small plankton and detritus that drifts past their outstretched arms,' NOAA feet ('the same structures that line the undersides of sea star arms but without the sucker tips,' NOAA says) help get the food to the creature's mouth, 'conveyor-belt style.' The new species comes from a family primarily found in tropical waters in the northeastern Atlantic, northern Indian Ocean and western and central Pacific Ocean, according to the study. The new species was found in the South China Sea, a contested body of water in southeastern Asia that borders Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The research team includes Shao'e Sun, Zijie Mei and Zhongli Sha.
