The northern lights set to return to Washington in dazzling fashion

For those who missed the show in May, have no fear: The northern lights are returning.

While the auroras set to appear Tuesday night and Wednesday night probably won’t be as brilliant or ubiquitous as they were in May, they should still be noticeable. The northern lights in May were rated G5, which is the strongest Earth has seen since 2003. The “G” stands for geomagnetic. The auroras occurring this week are expected to be around G3.

Light pollution affects individuals’ ability to see the northern lights from the city, so a drive to the countryside may be the best option for those wanting to catch a glimpse of the radiant lights.

Miranda Cote, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said the best time to look for the spectacle is between 10 p.m. and midnight. Cote said cloud cover, depending on where a person is, should be mostly clear to partly cloudy during the recommended viewing time.

“The view line is kind of near southern Washington,” Cote said. “But the further north you go, the better your opportunity will be to see it.”

Auroras exist because the sun emits jets of charged particles, also known as solar wind. When these particles reach our planet, they begin to interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic field pushes the particles toward the polar regions, where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere. Their collision causes energy to turn to gas molecules. This transfer from energy to gas excites the molecules, and once they cool down, the swirling mosaic of colors we call the northern lights is the result.

Oxygen emits greenish-yellow light or red light. Nitrogen usually emits blue light. Both oxygen and nitrogen give off ultraviolet light that can only be detected via cameras on satellites.

The strength and regularity of auroras are greatly influenced by solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Both increase the number of particles in the solar wind that’s beaming toward Earth.

In this specific case, a series of coronal mass ejections and solar flares over last weekend is what’s causing the northern lights to be visible once more in the northern United States.

For those wondering why they can’t see the northern lights with their eyes as well as they can through a camera, the answer is cones and rods - the photoreceptor cells in our eyes. Rods are sensitive to light and are the best for night, but they can’t pick up color. Cones detect color but need light to work properly. Simply put, rods are for the night, cones are for the day.

Since we use rods at night, we see most auroras in shades of gray rather than in color. Not to mention, cameras have advanced sensors and processors that help paint auroras in a more striking light for us.

The term aurora borealis was coined by Galileo Galilei in 1619 and named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora. But the first known sightings of the northern lights stretch back to 2600 B.C. in China.

The spiritual significance of auroras has probably been intertwined with humanity for even longer. The swirling colorful ribbons of lights in the sky were thought to be a message from ancestors, according to the Southern Tutchone located in the southern Yukon in Canada. The lights are supposed to be spirits dancing to let their children know that they are happy somewhere else.