Northern Lights Alert: Aurora Visible Across 20 U.S. States Tuesday

Twice in recent memory, the sun has reminded us that Earth is not an island — it is a traveler in a living solar system, subject to the moods of its star. This week, a series of coronal mass ejections are carrying charged particles toward Earth, expected to arrive September 8 and 9 and ignite the upper atmosphere in a display of Northern Lights visible across as many as twenty American states. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a G1 geomagnetic storm watch — modest by the standards of space weather, yet sufficient to draw the aurora far south of its usual polar resi