Many more people around the world than normal were recently able to see the northern and southern lights overhead with the naked eye. This unusual event was triggered by a very strong solar storm, which affected the movement of the Earth’s magnetic field.
The Sun is reaching the maximum point of activity in an 11-year cycle. This means that we can expect more explosive outpourings of particles. In the right circumstances, these are what ultimately generate the pretty auroras in the sky, as well as the geomagnetic storms that can damage infrastructure such as power grids and orbiting satellites.
So what is actually going on to cause these phenomena? The northern and southern Lights are usually confined to very high and very low latitudes. High-energy particles from the Sun flow toward the Earth, guided by the solar magnetic field. They are transferred onto the Earth’s magnetic field in a process known as reconnection.
