Appearances of the Northern Lights are expected to become much more common in the next year and a half as scientists look to an increase in solar activity as an indication.
One of the key indicators in the likelihood of the northern lights appearing is sunspot observations, which a recent report from NBC News says have increased significantly since the end of 2022.
Sunspots are dark, lower temperature, strongly magnetic regions on the sun’s surface that create the space weather coronal mass ejection, which is when magnetic distortions throw particles from the sun into space.
This results in particles being sent towards Earth, which then hit vulnerabilities in the Earth’s magnetic field, colliding with the planet’s atmosphere and creating the colors in the sky, also known as aurora borealis.
Due to the increase in solar activity, previous forecasts for occurrences of the northern lights have been surpassed, leaving scientists boosting how much they think the light show will be visible through 2025.
If the trend of increased solar activity continues, the next 18 months will have the strongest northern lights activity of both the coming decade and the past two, according to Mark Miesch, a research scientist at the University of Colorado - Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric.
Miesch shared with NBC News that the lights will be so strong they will be visible more often and from more places on Earth than in recent history.
Sunspot activity is predicted by the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, and in 2019, the international scientific group predicted that 2024 would be a below-average year. However, recent projections have shown that solar activity could be much higher.
Miesch says solar activity is expected to steadily increase until fall 2024 when the likelihood of the northern lights appearing is the highest.
“When there’s a big disturbance in the magnetic field, then you’re more likely to see aurora at lower latitudes,” Miesch said.
The northern lights are most visible near the planet’s poles, as the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest in the regions. However, the lights are expected to be visible even further from the polls, being seen as far south as Wisconsin and Minnesota.