Colorful northern lights dazzle Poconos, North America in ever-shifting sky-wide display

The sun has done it again.

Just over a month ago, millions of people across the United States were dazzled by a rare total solar eclipse. Here in the Poconos, an extremely thin crescent sun astonished us. This time, the sun's direct effect grabbed our attention, in the form of an unusual, continent-wide display of dazzling northern lights.

It was the Weekend of the Aurora Borealis, May 10-12, wherever skies were clear.

It was a show that was completely free; no ticket price, no cable or internet fees. All it needed was eyes to see, and a relatively unobstructed view of the sky away from bothersome lights.

This geomagnetic storm was whipped up by a tremendous solar flare blasting a wind of charged particles that overwhelmed earth's magnetic field and reacted with the rarefied gases of our upper atmosphere. The result was like gases in a fluorescent light tube turning on, high above our heads.

Reports flooded social media, including many local people who witnessed the greatest extent of the event Friday night, blessed to have looked and blessed to have clouds depart. Others (like me) who looked saw nothing, flummoxed by fog or clouds, but finding solace in the breathtaking photographs people were snapping, many with merely a smartphone, and posting online.

Brian Wilken saw them north of Honesdale Friday night, his picture showing a tremendous, green undulating curtain of light shimmering along the horizon.

"I've always been fascinated by the weather. The northern lights are for me an acknowledgement of how we live in such a beautiful space with so much to understand," Wilken reflected. "We get consumed with our day-to-day rituals; events like this serve as a beacon. There is more, much more. The Lord made an amazing universe. Events like this give us a chance to hear the whisper. There is much, much more."

Kristy Shuman-Kretsch saw the aurora Friday night from her home in Dyberry Township, north of Bethany. Her pictures added to the spectacular array of images online.

'"It was my first time seeing them, and I was extremely excited," she said. "Seeing them was something that has been on my bucket list for years. The progression of intensity and color changes were unbelievable."

Jeff Sidle, an accomplished nature photographer, found a wide-open sky to look for northern lights on Buckingham Road, Berlin Township, west of Beach Lake.

"What an incredible display of the aurora borealis," Sidle said. "The colors were radiating from the northern sky and enveloped a radius of more than 180 degrees from east to west and from directly overhead to the horizon!"

"For the best part of the show, I was there with my camera attached to a tripod and got to witness the unfolding flood of color all by myself. The colors of the dancing streaks viewed with the naked eye were quite subdued compared to the sensitivity of the camera sensor during an exposure of slightly less than once second," Sidle continued.

"Eventually I was joined by several other aurora chasers who remained with me along the roadside until the cloud cover returned and the fog enveloped the view," he said.

One evening during twilight I was driving home from Narrowsburg, New York, and saw what I assumed was a white could in front of me. Suddenly, it turned a bright vivid red and I knew this was no cloud. It was the beginning of a beautiful display of northern lights.

If you missed the show, take heart. Solar activity rises and falls every 11 years. We are on the upward climb of Solar Cycle 25, counting from when astronomers started keeping these records. Maximum is expected in 2025. During this time, an increased display of dark sunspots occurs on the sun’s surface, at times accompanied by solar flares and rare outbursts called coronal mass ejections, spewing massive amounts of charged particles into space.

Occasionally these ejections align with earth in its orbit, resulting in disruption of our magnetic field. Along with an increase in the chance for widespread auroras, they also can potentially disrupt satellites, electrical grids and electronics, and even affect a common magnetic compass.

Sunspots vary in size and number. They are caused by concentrations of the magnetic field trapping some of the sun’s heat from rising to the surface, making the spots dark.

During times of solar maximum, a few rare sunspot groups may become so large they can be glimpsed by the naked eye using safe, solar filters — try the solar eyeglasses you may have left over from the last solar eclipse. You can also track sunspots daily by safely projecting the sun through a telescope onto a white screen or looking through a telescope with a solar filter attached securely to the front of the tube.

Auroras are always occurring in a ring around the north and south magnetic poles, which are offset a few degrees from the north and south poles around which our world turns. The north magnetic pole is situated in far northern Canada.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains online maps updated every 30 minutes of where auroras are visible, and information on viewing them. Visit: swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast.

Also visit: spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-activity/en.

Keep looking up at the sky!

Peter Becker has worked at the Tri-County Independent or its predecessor publications since 1994. Reach him at pbecker@tricountyindependent.com or 570-253-3055 ext. 1588.

This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Northern lights dazzle Poconos, entire continent; sun amazes us again