Back in the summer of 1982, I woke up about 50 campers to see the Aurora Borealis display in Bridgton. That summer was the first time I personally ever saw the display and some of those kids still talk about that night 32 years later.

The Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, the words conjure a mental picture of some of the earth’s most dazzling natural phenomena. There’s a mystery to the light for many of you because you have likely never seen them. If you lived much further north they might be something you’ve seen annually, but here in New England, especially from central Maine to Cape Cod, the display is quite infrequent. When it does occur the charged atoms can light up the night sky with an incredible display of color ranging from red, green, blue and white.

The earth has a permanent, but invisible magnetic field surrounding it. Sometimes, the sun ejects masses of energy, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME. These ejections generate currents of charged particles, which then flow along lines of magnetic force into the polar regions of the planet. The upper levels of the atmosphere actually give these particles a boost of energy, then when they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce what we know as the northern lights.

There have been two major CME’s this week, the most recent was Wednesday. That one was the more intense of the two. Predicting exactly how these CME’s will affect the magnetic field of the Earth is quite an inexact science. Geophysicists know the potential of what can happen, but whether the effects are large or small is a bit of a guessing game.

These CME’s can also impact satellite communication and this is why communications and even the electrical grids can be impacted over several days after a solar storm. Parts of northern sections of Europe did see the northern lights last night. Tonight, the northern sections of the United States, including New England could see the display. This would last into the early morning hours of Sept. 13. The weather will be clear, so if the lights are on display you will be able to see them.

The best place to get a view of the lights is in an area where it’s dark. The best aurora usually take place when the sun is on the other side of the earth or very late at night. Remember, these occurrences are not highly predictable. I’ll do my best at tweeting if there is new information on Twitter @growingwisdom. Good luck and let’s hope we get to see them this time.

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