DETROIT – Your best bet for catching the Northern Lights in Southeast Michigan tonight is to have your iPhone or Android ready.
A solar energy burst is to blame. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G3, or strong, geomagnetic storm watch for June 4–5 after multiple coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, were expected to interact with Earth.
A CME is a massive cloud of charged particles and magnetic energy hurled outward from the Sun. NOAA said the combined arrival could occur around mid-afternoon Eastern Time on June 4, with stronger activity likely to follow into the evening.
Here is the cool part: Earth’s magnetic field works like a shield. When solar particles arrive, many are funneled toward the polar regions. They collide with gases high in the atmosphere, causing those gases to glow. Oxygen typically produces green and red colors, while nitrogen can contribute blue, pink, or purple hues. NASA explains that aurora colors depend on which gas is struck and how high up the collision occurs.
For Southeast Michigan, the viewing advice is straightforward: get away from city lights, face north, and give your eyes time to adjust. A phone camera in night mode may pick up color before your naked eye does.
The local weather also works in viewers’ favor, as the National Weather Service in Detroit forecast dry, warm conditions with limited cloud cover on June 4.
One fun fact: auroras do not need to be directly overhead to be visible. NOAA notes that bright auroras can sometimes be spotted from up to about 1,000 kilometers away under the right conditions. So even from Southeast Michigan, the Sun just might paint the northern sky.
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