A 'cannibal' solar flare triggered a spectacular Northern Lights show across Northern parts of the United States on Wednesday, with the hues seen as far south as California and Connecticut.
It came as the result of three outbursts from the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), since Monday. The third outburst overtook the two previous CMEs to become a 'cannibal' solar flare and 'ate' it.
Its turbocharged energy resulted in the colorful nighttime display, which happens as a result of electrons colliding with the Earth's thin upper atmosphere.
The flare reached the earth's magnetic field on Wednesday resulting in a level 3 - out of a 5 point scale- geomagnetic storm. The storm resulted in a stunning show of the Northern Lights from Washington to Maine.
Friday's beautiful storm was even seen in some parts of California and Connecticut, whose latitudes are normally too far south to catch the displays.
The outbursts are connected to sunspots, which are magnetic storms on the sun's surface.
Hongming Zheng captured the stunning scene of the Northern Lights in Lincoln, California on Wednesday, November 4
The Northern California sky was illuminated by a spectacular red glow as the aurora borealis peaked through the clouds
The beautiful display was only seen for a few minutes Wednesday night , as is common for the Northern Lights
Bright green lights brighten up the sky above North Dakota on Monday November 1 as the geomagnetic storm began
The Northern Lights illuminated the night sky in North Dakota as solar flares reacted to the Earth's magnetic fields
The beautiful natural phenomena was also spotted in Northeast Montana as clouds began to roll in but did not block the view
Solar flares bring an influx of electrons that interact with the oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's magnetic field surrounding the planet. In turn, this produces the colorful waves of the aurora borealis - the scientific term for the Northern Lights.
The sun's activity is tracked in an 11-year cycle. The sun is currently in 'solar cycle 25,' which scientists expect to peak in the summer of 2025.
'The last several years really we've had very little activity, as is the case during solar minimum, but now we're ramping up and ramping up quite fast into the next solar cycle maximum, which we expect in 2025,' Bill Murtagh, a program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Space.com.
'We're seeing the increase in activity that one would expect with this rise in the solar cycle,' Murtagh said. 'This is kind of our awakening phase.'
He explained the CMEs as 'a billion-ton cloud of plasma gas with magnetic fields'. 'So the sun shot a magnet out into space and that magnet made the 93-million-mile transit from the sun to the Earth.'
While the Northern Lights are typically easier to spot in dark remote locations, the lights this week were strong enough to dazzle over the bright city skyline in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Drone footage recorded the moment orange, yellow, and green light from the aurora borealis shimmered in the Alberta sky
Bright colorful lights were recorded dancing in the dark sky above Manitoba, Canada putting on a beautiful display
Pink and green lights flashed among the stars in Manitoba, Canada this week as three solar flares traveled to Earth's orbit
The Earth has its own magnetic field which reacted to the CMEs magnetic fields causing the
