HomeTechnologyThe northern lights colored the skies of Portugal

The northern lights colored the skies of Portugal

Blaine
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This Friday night, the skies of Portugal were ‘contemplated’ with the northern lights, a phenomenon associated with the solar storm of rare intensity that is affecting the Earth, one of the largest in the last 20 years.

Since Friday night, the Facebook page “Meteo Trás-os-Montes” has been publishing photographs of this phenomenon, in violet or pink tones, that appeared in the skies of Portugal.

Among the various localities where photographic records emerged are Chaves and Vila Pouca de Aguiar, in the district of Vila Real, Bragança, Viseu, Seia and Celorico da Beira (Guarda), Condeixa (Coimbra), Santarém or Portalegre.

“We were already looking forward to tonight, since the North American agencies had already warned that the solar storm that was going to hit us would be one of the largest ever recorded. There was indeed the possibility of recording the aurora in unusual places,” highlighted Márcio Santos, creator of the “Meteo Trás-os-Montes” page, highlighting that the “fabulous records” exceeded “far beyond expectations.”

Márcio Santos also told the Lusa agency that the last great northern lights in Portugal was on January 25, 1938, and “there are only reports.” “Illustrating in this way is unprecedented,” said this meteorology fan.

The phenomenon rarely visible in the skies of Portugal is due to a solar storm of rare intensity that began to affect the Earth this Friday.

This type of storm especially affects the northern and southern latitudes, around the poles, Mathew Owens, professor of space physics at the University of Reading, explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) this Friday.

And “the stronger the storm, the lower it goes in terms of latitude,” he explained.

The event is therefore generating the “famous” northern lights in the northern hemisphere, even in regions where they are not common.

In addition to Portugal, other European countries such as Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Romania and Ukraine are also registering these phenomena.

In the United States, the northern lights were expected in most of the northern half of the country, and perhaps as low as in Alabama or northern California, according to the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). .

“If you are in a dark place, with no clouds and little light pollution, you can see a pretty impressive northern lights,” said Rob Steenburgh, a scientist at the US Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).

This solar storm could also cause disruptions to electrical and communications networks, US authorities warned.

The SWPC has issued a level 4 geomagnetic storm warning, on a scale of 5.

“A series of coronal mass flares, which are explosions of energetic particles and magnetic fields from the Sun, are headed toward Earth,” explained Shawn Dahl, a scientist at this center associated with NOAA.

Observing the Northern Lights at such low latitudes as Portugal and Spain is extremely rare. In Portugal, therefore, there is no official body that records these phenomena. Auroras are not recorded, but the effect of geomagnetic storms is.

Last year, in 2023, an aurora borealis was also observed at such low latitudes, below 40º, in the Figueira da Foz area and in several areas of southern Europe.

Source: Observadora

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