The northern lights may grace the skies over the United States today and shall be visible in parts of Washington. Over the weekend, the Space Weather Prediction Center warned of increased solar activity which could impact the Northern Hemisphere from Sunday to Tuesday. Also, minor geomagnetic storm levels were observed on Sunday afternoon across the Northern Hemisphere. This may make the Aurora Borealis stretch and be seen beyond the Arctic Circle. For Monday, moderate geomagnetic storm levels were forecasted expanding the opportunity to view the Aurora as far south as Chicago, Detroit and Buddalo. Amazed by Aurora Borealis Pics? Scientists Study How the Beautiful Phenomenon of Northern Lights Occur.

According to the National Weather Service in Seattle, an aurora may be visible in many parts of western Washington across Monday night and Tuesday morning. The peak hours of the aurora will be late Monday evening, September 28, and early Tuesday morning September 29. The National Weather Service forecast has said that it could be partly cloudy skies for Sunday night before transitioning to clear skies for the rest of the week. This will create an ideal set up to view the stunning light show in the sky. 'Aurora Meet Airglow'! NASA Shares a Stunning Photo of Earth's Most Colourful Phenomena Captured by ISS.

Aurora Borealis May be Possible Over Washington:

Lights Are On Its Way:

To view the Northern Lights, you have to be in an area without light pollution. It may take 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness of the night sky, once it appears, you will see a faint green glow which will keep increasing. Aurora Borealis over Buffalo will look very different than those seen in photos from the Arctic Circle. It happens because the influence of the earth's magnetic field weakens the closer to the equator, impacting how the Aurora would look elsewhere.

Northern Lights is a result of electrons within the solar wind when they interact with the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. The Aurora forms 50 to 800 kilometres above the Earth's surface and is concentrated in the North and South poles. However, when the space weather activity associated with stronger solar storms increased, the Aurora can stretch away from polar regions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 28, 2020 11:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).