The northern lights did not disappoint viewers in the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Friday evening May 10.
Many residents shared photographs of the colours and lights they saw above their homes on social media encouraging others to get out and see them as well.
The solar storm was initially expected for Friday night and into the early hours of Saturday (May 11) only, but now Space Weather Canada says a major geomagnetic storm warning is in effect until 6 a.m. (Pacific Time) Sunday. Those who missed Friday’s display will be certain to try and catch it Saturday.
Shelly Herrera-Llanera of Williams Lake said seeing the “amazing wonders in the sky” gave her an uplifting spirit of hope and peace.
“I got goosebumps and was crying when I saw it last night,” she said Saturday morning. “I have been through rough times, but seeing it last night was like God’s telling me He can do wonders, so the impossible will always be possible for Him. We just need to trust Him.”
Heather Martin of Bella Coola drove up to Heckman Pass to view the display from the Stupendous Lookout.
“We heard the solar storm was massive and we had clear skies,” Martin said. “Since it’s not very common to see them, I hoped I would have a better chance with a wide range of vision to see them around here.”
She took her son and they slept in the car for a few hours while they waited.
“It was a really lovely night with him,” Martin said, adding people down in the Bella Coola Valley saw the display too.
Shannon Woods lives at Xeni Gwet’in First Nation and said they could see the Northern Lights at about 11 p.m.
“The Tsilhqot’in word for them is Yat’ax nagwedek’en. It means fire in the sky,” Woods said. “That’s how the elders describe the lights.”
On the Canadian Space Agency website the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are described as a spectacular, colourful display of light commonly seen in the night sky in the northern hemisphere.
Auroras in the southern hemisphere are known as the southern lights, or aurora australis.
Both the northern lights and the southern lights are polar lights, or aurora polaris, because they occur near Earth’s magnetic poles.
The colours of the northern lights are determined by a number of factors: the composition of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, altitude where the aurora occurs, density of the atmosphere and level of energy involved.
Different colours can be seen when the northern lights are in the sky.
Green is the most common colour seen from the ground and is produced when charged particles collide with oxygen molecules at altitudes of 100 to 300 km.
Occasionally, the lower edge of an aurora will have a pink or dark red fringe, which is produced by nitrogen molecules at altitudes of around 100 km.
A bit higher in the atmosphere (at altitudes of 300 to 400 km), collisions with oxygen atoms produce red auroras.
Finally, hydrogen and helium molecules can produce blue and purple auroras, but these colours tend to be difficult for our eyes to see against the night sky.
With files from the Canadian Space Agency and Black Press Media
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