ByJamie Carter,
Senior Contributor.
After a week of frequent and strong Northern Lights, a rare ground level event across North America and an X-rated solar flare, up to 16 states could see aurora after dark on Sunday, Nov. 16. According to a forecast by space weather experts at NOAA, a G1 or G2-rated geomagnetic storm puts northern states in with a chance of seeing the aurora borealis on then northern horizon — just as a major meteor shower gets underway.
Earth-orbiting satellites detected a major X4.0-class solar flare at 8:30 on Nov. 14. According to NASA, solar flares are powerful bursts of energy from the sun that can impact radio, power grids, GPS and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
It came days after a massive X5.1 class solar flare — the strongest in over a year — that, together with two other solar flares, caused displays of aurora across all of North America.
