Northern Lights alert: Why aurora could now suddenly spike
Forecasts of Northern Lights displays have been standard in the past few weeks, and the reason for that is last weekend’s fall equinox. In its wake, there could be a brief and spectacular aurora season, with geomagnetic storms generally becoming more intense than usual in the weeks surrounding the equinox. Around the fall equinox, the magnetic field of Earth and the solar wind align, a phenomenon known as the “Russell-McPherron Effect.”