Grab your warm jacket and head out to a dark, open spot. The stunning Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, may be visible tonight if the weather and space conditions align.
The Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre (ASWFC) has issued an Aurora Alert, meaning a geomagnetic storm is currently active. These conditions increase the chances of seeing visible auroras across high-latitude regions in Southern Australia.
“If you’re in the right place at the right time, and the skies are clear, you might just catch the sky doing its dance.”
Use the ASWFC’s auroral oval tool to check whether your location falls within tonight’s “equatorward visibility line.”
When the Sun ejects streams of charged particles—known as the solar wind or coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—they race toward Earth. Upon colliding with our planet’s magnetic field, these particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, producing waves of colorful light known as auroras.
Author’s summary: A geomagnetic storm could make the Southern Lights visible across southern Australia and New Zealand tonight; check the skies between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.