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Rare northern lights visible in western NC Thursday, possibly again Friday night


MARCH 23, 2023 - Northern lights visible overnight over western North Carolina. (Photo credit: @AshevillePictures, the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville)
MARCH 23, 2023 - Northern lights visible overnight over western North Carolina. (Photo credit: @AshevillePictures, the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville)
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It was an amazing view for sky-gazers Thursday night into Friday morning, March 24, as brilliant and bright colors from the northern lights were visible across the country.

Photographers from Asheville, Fairview, Boone and across the state are sharing photos of the vibrant colors in the night sky.

In western N.C., UNC Asheville meteorology student Evan Fisher captured images of the northern lights from his front yard in Fairview Thursday night.

Fisher shared with News 13 that he waited for hours and took more than 400 photos to get the perfect shot.

SLIDESHOW: NORTHERN LIGHTS FILL MONTANA SKY

“By 9:30 or so, we started seeing the first flickers on the horizon, and then at 11:15 there was one particularly bright just burst of the Northern Lights that showed some red pillars," Fisher said.

The aurora borealis lights, also known as northern lights, are mostly yellow-green with areas of red, purple, and white.

According to NOAA, auroras are geomagnetic storms, created when energy and particles from the sun disturb the Earth’s magnetosphere. The colors of an aurora are determined by the altitude and type of molecule that is excited. Excited oxygen molecules typically glow red above 120 miles, and green glows occur between 75 and 110 miles.

“Those charged particles from the sun are hitting our magnetic field, getting funneled up to our poles, and then when they enter our atmosphere, they add some energy to the gases in our atmosphere and you see those colors -- that’s our aurora," said Timothy DeLisle, with Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.

For those looking to chase the lights, NOAA says that the “best” time to view “is usually within an hour or two of midnight (between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.)."

DeLisle said there is a possibility the lights could be visible once again Friday night.

“We don’t know if we’ll be able to see it again (Friday) night or tomorrow night; some of this can be pretty hard to predict, but it’s possible,” DeLisle said.

DeLisle recommends attempting to view the lights from a dark area with a clear view of the northern sky.

The aurora borealis is usually only found within the arctic circle.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center says they registered a severe disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field Thursday night into Friday after observing some instability in the Sun's atmosphere.

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