Aurora Borealis: 'Rare' Northern Lights to dazzle skies of only THESE states in US

The northern lights are probably not going to be seen in the entire United States this week. Earlier, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geological Institute had predicted that the northern lights may be visible on Thursday, July 13, in almost 17 states across the US. "A solar storm forecast for Thursday is expected to give sky gazers in 17 American states a chance to glimpse the Northern Lights, the colourful sky show that happens when solar wind hits the atmosphere," it  had stated.

As per the latest update released on Monday, the phenomenon could be seen in some areas of Canada, Alaska, and some of the higher-altitude US cities. But it's unlikely to be visible in the majority of US states.

What was happening on July 13? 

Solar storms release clouds of charged particles into space, where they interact with Earth's magnetic field to produce the northern lights. When the charged particles meet with the atoms and molecules in the high atmosphere,  this results in a colourful display. The northern parts of the globe, where it is normally clear and dark at night, are where the lights are typically visible at high altitudes.

Are northern lights cancelled? 

Taking to Twitter UAF Geophysical Institute explained and justified why the viewer will not be able to see the northern lights. The Institute wrote, " Aurora forecast update! New data received Monday shows only moderate activity for this week. We are heading toward solar maximum, which brings a gradual increase in the sun’s activity, so there will be plenty more opportunities for lower latitude aurora fans to see the lights." 

In a long series of tweet threads, UAF Geophysical Institute wrote, "The prediction of active Kp6 aurora on July 13 (UTC) was a long-term forecast based on the Sun's rotation. Looking back one and two solar rotation periods (27 and 54 days) before July 13 showed active conditions prevailed at those times." 

According to them, the features of the Sun that produce activity like this typically last 1-3 months, so the active conditions were predicted to occur again this week. However, the forecast activity has been less than three days in the future. Further, the institute asserted that they can see that the solar features that produced the prior activity have "actually diminished over the last month".

This unpredictable change has changed everything for the sky gazers of the Northern Lights. "The high levels of activity previously expected are now considered much less likely", wrote the institute in the tweet.

Meanwhile, according to the project manager at the centre, Lt. Bryan Brasher, “Now we’re not predicting anything on the 12th or 13th." "Nothing out of the ordinary," he added as per the US-based media outlet.