Courtesy/NOAA

NOAA News:

The National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center shares a  prediction of the intensity and location of the Aurora Borealis tonight, May 11 and tomorrow night, May 12 over North America.

This visibilty is being caused by an unusually strong geomagnetic storm that erupted from a sunspot cluster on the sun.

The illustrations above show a ‘viewline’ that represents the southern-most locations from which you may see the aurora on the northern horizon. This product is based on the OVATION model and uses the maximum forecast geomagnetic activity (Kp) between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. US Central Time.

The two maps above show the aurora and viewline tonight and tomorrow night. The brightness and location of the aurora is typically shown as a green oval centered on Earth’s magnetic pole. The green ovals turn red when the aurora is forecasted to be more intense.

Aurora can often be observed somewhere on Earth from just after sunset or just before sunrise. The aurora is not visible during daylight hours.

The aurora does not need to be directly overhead but can be observed from as much as a 1,000 km away when the aurora is bright and if conditions are right.

A short term forecast (~30 minutes) along with the last 24 hours of activity can be found on the Aurora – 30 Minute Forecast page. And SWPC’s new Aurora Dashboard (Experimental) collects the products and information from across SWPC’s website for a one-stop shop.