{"id":197694,"date":"2025-10-02T17:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/197694\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T17:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:58:10","slug":"northern-lights-light-up-the-night-sky-over-new-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/197694\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern lights light up the night sky over New England"},"content":{"rendered":"

The northern lights surprised New Englanders early Thursday with yet another shimmering display in the night sky as a sudden, strong geomagnetic storm projected the aurora farther south into Massachusetts and even Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

This latest showing<\/a> of the spectacular lights was the result of \u201csome surprise and some stronger-than-anticipated (geomagnetic) activity,\u201d said Shawn Dahl, meteorologist and service coordinator at NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Prediction Center<\/a>,. It marks three straight nights of intense, sporadic storms that made the northern lights visible in the lower latitudes of the United States.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe aurora as seen in Western Maine at 11:34 p.m., Wednesday.Joey McGrail<\/p>\n

Dahl said a high-speed coronal mass ejection (CME), a large stream of solar particles and magnetically charged plasma that shoots out from the sun, arrived at Earth around Sunday night, causing a few strong geomagnetic storms this week<\/a>. \u201cIt pretty much all came together for a several-day stretch of mostly G1-G2 levels, with a pair of isolated, strong G3 storms as well,\u201d Dahl said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe view from the Mount Washington summit Wednesday night.Mount Washington Observatory<\/p>\n

From the Mount Washington Observatory earlier this week:<\/p>\n

The Space Weather Prediction Center\u2019s real-time solar wind plot, below, shows the IMF (interplanetary magnetic field) intensity in Bt (strength) and Bz (orientation). \u201cWhen that Bz is south (negative number), we connect well\u201d to produce strong geomagnetic storms, according to Dahl. The yellow plot is speed.<\/p>\n

\"AA plot map of solar wind activity from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, 2025.SWPC\/NOAA<\/p>\n

Although the magnetic field strength is expected to settle, there\u2019s still a chance that the northern lights may continue tonight and over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The \u201cspeed will likely stay elevated for a few days, allowing for a chance of substorms (brief escalations of geomagnetic activity),\u201d according to Dahl.<\/p>\n

Have a photo of the Northern Lights in New England? We would love to feature it here. Email photos to weather@globe.com<\/a> if you give us permission to share your images on our site and social media platforms.<\/p>\n

Marianne Mizera can be reached at marianne.mizera@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @MareMizera<\/a>.<\/p>\n