Northern lights

The northern lights, caused indirectly by sunspots, might be visible tonight and Thursday night in Upstate New York.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Thanks to a "particularly strong solar flare" hitting the earth, the northern lights could be visible tonight and Thursday in Upstate New York.

The yellow line indicates what NASA calls "the most likely area of aurora extent" of the northern lights tonight and Thursday. The area encompasses nearly all of Upstate New York.

The most likely extent of shimmering light show will be as far south as the Southern Tier, according to NASA's Space Weather Prediction Service.

"Thanks to a particularly strong solar flare due to hit the Earth tonight, the Northern Lights will be visible much further from the poles than they normally are," said Popular Mechanics.

Cloud cover could mask the lights, although there should be some clear skies at least part of the next two nights across most of Upstate New York. The nearly full moon could also make the lights harder to see.

If you want to see the lights, get as far north, and as far away from city lights, as you can. The best time is after midnight.

A sunspot erupted on the sun on Monday, sending what scientists call a "coronal mass ejection," or CME, toward the earth. A coronal mass ejection is "a huge explosion of magnetic field and plasma from the sun's corona," said Mark Torregrossa, a meteorologist with mlive.com in Michigan. When a CME hits the earth's atmosphere, it can cause the colorful, wavy northern lights.

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251