Glowing skies
Isabella County residents have had opportunities to witness northern lights for two years in a row, according to Dr. Alexandre David-Uraz, a Central Michigan University professor in the Physics Department.
The increase in the auroral activity took place because of the excited particles that are released into space, David-Uraz said.
"It's actually a pretty cool phenomenon that the air (is) becoming excited because of the sun, and then they're releasing energy in the form of light, and that ends up hitting your eyes, which is why you can see it," CMU Astronomy Club President Kasey Pischel said.
How do the northern lights form?
Over time, the sun undergoes a continuous cycle where it goes from being less magnetically active to more magnetically active, David-Uraz said.
It releases these charged particles that get shot up into space. If it hits in the right direction towards each other, our magnetic fields capture those particles, and you get these amazing weather events like the northern lights.
"When you reach solar maximum, then things get really interesting," David-Uraz said. "You've got flares, you've got coronal mass ejections, all these different things happen at the surface of the sun that release these particles into space."
The Earth's magnetic field redirects those particles towards the northern magnetic pole. If the northern magnetic poles get too overwhelming, then the atmosphere further south will be able to collect those particles.
Where to view the northern lights?
To best view the northern lights, traveling farther outside of the city with less light pollution is a good option, Pischel said.
"When your camera is exposing for longer, it's collecting light for longer," Pischel said. "You'd be really able to resolve the Aurora much better if you take a longer exposure picture."
The Upper Peninsula is one of the prime locations to view the Northern Lights.
"Upper Peninsula is a really incredible place to look at the Aurorae in the summer," David-Uraz said. "Simply because ... the further north you go, the better chances you have at seeing them."
The best place to take a look at the forecast for the Northern Lights is a website called NOAA.
Looking into the future
While we are still in the maximum period, the peak activity could be slowly decreasing. There will likely be fewer northern lights in the near future, David-Uraz said.
"We'll get to see it a couple of times still, but for sure it's gonna start decreasing," David-Uraz said. "And eventually, we'll have to wait another 11 years and hope that it's quite as impressive as it was this time around."
Over time, the sun will start sending out fewer of these energetic particles, as this has to do with the solar magnetic cycle, but even at solar minimum, some particles could still be ejected from the sun, and it becomes less frequent.
