DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - It's no slam dunk since central Illinois needs a KP scale of eight or greater to view the northern lights. However, KP scales can change rapidly, so maybe take a peek outside before midnight. Â
The KP scale is a measure of geomagnetic storms that impact Earth. To understand the KP scale better, we first have to dive into what creates it. Yesterday, several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) took place. That is, the sun released massive plumes of plasma and magnetic fields from the corona, its outermost atmosphere, into interplanetary space. Ejecting up to billions of tons of solar material at speeds of millions of miles per hour, they are the largest explosive events in the solar system. Â
Yesterday's CME is called a cannibal CME. It's just what it sounds like. Some of the CMEs were so fast, they caught up to and swallowed slower-moving CMEs. As these reach Earth, they interact with our magnetosphere and create distortions in the magnetic field; a geomagnetic storm, if you will. The greater the geomagnetic storm, the greater the chance we see the byproduct: the northern lights! Â
Happy aurora-hunting; stay sweaty and stay weather-aware.Â
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