Africa-Press – Mauritius. Experts first revealed some exciting news that the northern lights, an auroral spectacle, would be visible on Thursday across 17 states. However, that forecast may not come true, after all.
The chance for many US residents to glimpse the wonders of the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights, were squashed on Tuesday after experts retracted an earlier forecast that suggested individuals across 17 states would have the viewing opportunity.
The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks initially announced an exciting forecast that the northern lights would be visible from the US this Thursday. States including Montana, South Dakota, Michigan, Maryland, New York and Maine were expecting to be dazzled by the auroral displays.
But Bill Murtagh, the program coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, has since revealed that the “solar storm” which was supposed to make the northern lights visible, may not have ever existed.
v“There are only a few satellites and instruments dedicated to collecting these data, so the models typically have a wide range of predictions since the observations are relatively sparse,” explained Don Hampton, a research associate professor and space physicist at the university that first made Thursday’s forecast.
He added that his university doesn’t make long-term auroral predictions. But even as the lights may not be visible on Thursday, Murtagh says there is no reason to give up hope of seeing them in the distant future.
He adds that the more significant geomagnetic storms (and therefore more viewable northern lights) may occur in the next 1 to 2 years as the sun approaches its solar maximum period, which is responsible for creating more active auroras.
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