Sarnia residents capture stunning northern lights display

Tara Jeffrey Residents in Sarnia-Lambton captured some spectacular images of a rare northern lights show Sunday evening, as the stunning skies — known as the aurora borealis — were visible across parts of southern Ontario for the second time in two m

Tara Jeffrey

Residents in Sarnia-Lambton captured some spectacular images of a rare northern lights show Sunday evening, as the stunning skies — known as the aurora borealis — were visible across parts of southern Ontario for the second time in two months.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Centre, the earth was impacted by what’s known as a severe geomagnetic storm, “with an impact extending across the northern tier of the United States and into Canada.

“A coronal mass ejection, or CME, was seen erupting from the sun around midday on Friday… following a moderately strength M1 solar flare,” the agency noted. “When the edge of the plasma cloud sweeps past our planet, it is expected to cause a disturbance in Earth’s geomagnetic field.”

The resulting geomagnetic storm was expected to reach moderate levels late Sunday night into early Monday morning.

“As a result,” the Weather Network said, “we could see auroras farther south than usual.”

Residents in southern Ontario were also able to see a northern lights display in late March.

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