The Northern Lights Are Ramping Up Again in the US This Week—Here's How to See Them

Many stargazers throughout the United States have already witnessed the aurora borealis this year. But if you haven't had the chance to see them yet, this week may bring the phenomenon back into view. A geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for Wednesday, July 24, due to heightened solar activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.

The impending geomagnetic storm is due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) released from the sun on July 21. Per the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, CMEs are an eruption of solar material that, when they arrive at Earth, can cause a solar storm.

While the storm is expected to impact Earth on July 24, its exact timing is still uncertain. "The window for arrival starts early July 24. Likely the storm will be fashionably late, due to slow solar wind "traffic" & an additional glancing storm blow ahead of it," Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist, wrote in a post on X.

Every geomagnetic storm is classified by the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center as a way to communicate to the public the space weather conditions and their possible effects. The scale ranges from G1 to G5. The storm expected to occur on July 24 is currently classified as a G2-class, which is considered moderate.

The upside of geomagnetic storms is that they can offer the opportunity to see the northern lights from Earth. According to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, the impending storm may cause the aurora borealis to become visible over some northern and upper Midwest states from New York to Idaho this week.