If you missed the chance to catch a glimpse of the aurora australis lighting up the skies over Australia’s mid to southern regions, you have a final opportunity to witness this stunning display tonight.
From Sydney in the east to Perth in the west, Australians were treated to a spectacle of green and purple hues dancing across the night sky yesterday.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a 30-minute aurora forecast, predicting that the lights will be visible once more at sunset today, roughly between 8:00 pm and 8:30 pm.
According to experts, the interaction between solar particles and Earth’s magnetic field is responsible for creating these “beautiful curtains of light.”
“The recent burst of energy, known as a coronal mass ejection, has already reached our planet. Unless another significant solar event occurs today, we do not expect further peak activity for some time,” an expert explained.
The sun is currently experiencing its most active phase in the 11-year solar cycle, reaching its peak activity.
“So that’s why we’re seeing so much aurora activity,” Allen said.
Allen said there have been more reports of aurora activity than ever before, which has set a “new tone for what we expect” in the coming years.
“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” she said.
“What’s to say during the next solar cycle that there couldn’t even be more of these flares?”
