Residents of municipalities such as Namiquipa, Buenaventura, Villa Ahumada, Janos, Camargo and Cuauhtémoc, appreciated the northern lights on Thursday night.
The sky was illuminated with celestial lights of blue, purple, pink and reddish.
Although this phenomenon is more common in Alaska, Canada or northern Europe, this time it could be observed in Chihuahua.
The unexpected appearance of the northern lights in Chihuahua caused users to upload their best photographs to social networks.
The northern lights are optical phenomena that occur when protons and electrons collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.
What is a geomagnetic storm and how does it affect it?
In recent days, one of the most impressive and spectacular astronomical phenomena has been seen, the northern lights. From Switzerland, Finland, Norway to Argentina, Chile, the United States and even Mexico.
The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has been the office in charge of following up on these northern lights that have appeared in different countries, and despite how beautiful they may be, they issued the first severe geomagnetic solar storm alert since 2005.
According to the National Geographic Institute (IGN) of Spain, a geomagnetic storm is “disturbances of the Earth’s magnetic field, lasting from several hours to even a few days.” The origin of the storms is external, and they occur when there is a strong increase in particles emitted in solar flares that are reached by the Earth’s magnetosphere.
Although they leave behind an unmissable visual spectacle worthy of being photographed, the effects of geomagnetic storms are various, from damaging the infrastructures that orbit the Earth’s space (satellites and space stations) as well as disrupting the signals of electrical and communications networks.
Similarly, geomagnetic storms can affect navigation systems such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and create damaging geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) in the electrical grid and pipelines, details the SWPC.
Source: milenio
