{"id":885890,"date":"2026-09-06T20:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/885890\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T20:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:02:09","slug":"longer-nights-bring-more-chances-to-see-northern-lights-discoverestevan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/885890\/","title":{"rendered":"Longer nights bring more chances to see northern lights &#8211; DiscoverEstevan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the nights get longer and darker, Moose Jaw-area skywatchers will have more opportunities to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Abigail Sadowski, resident astronomer at Kalium Observatory, said the northern lights can be unpredictable, but there are resources that can help people know when conditions are favourable.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did recently have some really good ones that I could even see while I was in Cypress Hills about a week or two ago,\u201d Sadowski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The aurora is caused by charged particles interacting with Earth\u2019s magnetic field and upper atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When geomagnetic activity increases, Sadowski said, the auroral oval can expand farther south, making the northern lights visible to more people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Checking the aurora forecast\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of the resources Sadowski recommends is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She said the website,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discovermoosejaw.com\/articles\/spaceweather.gov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spaceweather.gov<\/a>, can look overwhelming at first, but people can watch the G scale, which measures the strength of geomagnetic storms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The scale ranges from G1, considered minor, to G5, which is classified as extreme.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally speaking, the stronger the storm is, the better the chance that we\u2019ll have aurora, and they\u2019ll be visible farther south,\u201d Sadowski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>NOAA also provides an aurora forecast map showing where auroral activity is expected, including short-term forecasts based on current conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Related Stories:\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002<\/p>\n<p>Finding a dark sky\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the best chance of seeing the northern lights, Sadowski recommends getting away from city lights and finding a location with a clear view toward the north.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, when the storms do get really strong, I\u2019ve seen it where they are everywhere and so bright it can be even seen in the city,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She also recalled seeing an aurora formation that looked like a picket fence, a phenomenon she said can occur during strong displays.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the nights get longer and darker, Moose Jaw-area skywatchers will have more opportunities to catch a glimpse&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-885890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}