If you have friends or family in New England, you may have received delighted emails from friends or family. Recently the night sky over the northeast has been illuminated by the beautiful atmospheric display called aurora borealis, or the northern lights. Usually these displays can only be seen far to the north, but this year folks almost as far a south as New York City have been able to experience the wonder of the northern lights. Here’s more from The Bulletin:

“The Aurora Borealis or “northern lights” and the Aurora Australis or “southern lights” occur during geomagnetic storms when charged particles impact the Earth’s upper atmosphere,” the National Weather Service stated on its website. “Usually, they are only visible in the far northern and southern polar regions. But during an extreme space weather event, the aurora will become very intense and will be visible in places that usually never see these elusive night lights.”

People across Earth can expect more frequent and brighter northern lights to grace the sky as the sun nears the height of its 11-year cycle, making electromagnetic activity a more common occurrence.

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