“The predictions I’m seeing show the distribution of aurora potential dipping into the NYC Aaea of the globe, '' said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. People with access to the necessary transportation could also try to camp at the various state parks in the New York and New Jersey region. and midnight, when there is a short window expected for clear skies tonight. Fried said a good, clear night with low humidity offers the best conditions. Jersey Shore Oct 4 No Beach Day as Nor'easter Continues to Pound Jersey Shore According to the National Weather Service, a geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for parts of the northern United. Right now, there is a new moon, which makes conditions for seeing the aurora borealis more favorable.Īll the bright city lights are a hindrance for sky gazing, and the weather for Friday evening isn’t completely favorable either. If it’s visible, the phenomenon will be seen towards the Northern horizon. “In this case, it may be possible.”įirst, look North, Fried suggested. “It is rare for aurora to be visible in New York City,” Fried said. Predicting the location of a northern lights sighting is difficult on any given night, even in places like Norway where conditions are optimal.īut Bart Fried, executive vice president of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York City, said there are ways of bettering the chances of witnessing such a rare and spectacular event. New Yorkers may miss out on the rare, celestial light show that’s expected Friday or Saturday evening. Usually, aurora borealis chasers have to go as far as Alaska to catch a glimpse of the dancing, colorful waves of light. “It’s the same basic idea, except we're dealing with gasses now instead.When the sun has energy eruptions, as it did earlier this week, the northern lights may be more visible to the northern third of the U.S. “We all know that we rub our hands together, you're going to get heat,” he said. “Friction is a great analogy,” Stephen Kaeppler, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Clemson University in South Carolina, and principal investigator for the NASA mission, said in a blog post on the agency’s website. Winds send the particles in different directions, and when they collide, interesting physics results, according to NASA. The transformation from plasma to neutral gas takes place in an extended atmospheric boundary layer where both intermix. A once-neutral gas transforms into an electrically reactive state of matter known as plasma.” “Energized by the Sun’s unfiltered rays, electrons are pried from their atoms, which then take on a positive charge. 'But hundreds of miles above us, our air begins to fundamentally change character,” the space agency said on its website. Life on our planet exists in the troposphere, Earth’s lowest atmospheric layer, and the air we breathe is made up of neutral, magnetically balanced atoms and molecules with all their electrons accounted for, NASA explained. During solar storms, the sun emits electrically charged ions that move away in a stream of plasma, an ionized gas, known as the “solar wind.” The vivid colors glow when the plasma slams into the Earth’s ionosphere about 60 to 80 miles above the planet’s surface.Īs the National Weather Service explains the phenomenon, the lights glow “similarly to how a neon sign lights up when electrons pass through inert gas.”Īurora borealis displays are favored in cold-weather regions near the poles, but the energy exchange that causes them is an important source of heat, according to NASA, which has plans to blast two rockets through an active aurora to learn more. The science behind the auroras - in the Southern Hemisphere, they’re called the aurora australis - is complicated. In particularly strong storms, people in latitudes as low as Pennsylvania, Oregon and Iowa can see the lights. During geomagnetic storms, the ovals expand away from the poles and give some lucky people in the United States an ethereal sky show they’ll never forget.

Northern lights forecast new jersey