Solar Tsunami? Look Up Tonight for a Grand Show

A solar storm could make tonight a great night for stargazing.

The sun's surface erupted early Sunday and sent tons of plasma into space, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It's headed toward Earth, which could be in for a beautiful light show.

"This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th," astronomer Leon Golub of the astrophysics center, said in a statement. "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."

Some publications have dubbed it a "solar tsunami."

Solar Dynamics Observatory / NASA

A pair of huge eruptions from the sun, such as this one spotted in April, has created a mass of plasma that that is now racing toward the earth.

The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, was captured by a NASA camera. Depending on its path, it could make the northern lights, or aurora borealis, visible tonight.

"When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet's magnetic field, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm," Golub said. Solar particles "collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, which then glow like miniature neon signs."

Residents of the northern U.S. and other nations should look to the north tonight and early Wednesday to see rippling "curtains" of green and red light, Golub said. While aurorae can usually only be seen at high latitudes, they also can be on display at more southern points during a geomagnetic storm, Golub said.
Cities, because of their bright lights, aren't good places to see the show, Golub told The Boston Globe.
Scientists will get an idea of when the lights can be seen after the eruption passes by a satellite, the Globe said. They will know about an hour ahead of time.