There is a good chance the Northern Lights will dance in the sky over Seattle on Saturday night and charged particles hurtling through space to the recent eruptions of the sun crash into the upper atmosphere of Earth.
Despite the clouds covering Seattle on Friday is expected to continue throughout Saturday, forecasters say if you can find a clear spot and away from city lights, you may be able to see the greenish glow or weak red lights along the northern horizon.
"The Earth's magnetic field is about to be woken up pretty well," said Joe Kunches, space scientist at the NOAA Center for Space Weather Prediction on Friday. "It may well be able to see auroras throughout the U.S. and north into the central part of the U.S."
He said the display capabilities of charged particles in the atmosphere was better Friday night, but there is still a chance the lights that shine on Saturday night.
Kunches said there are two types of atmospheric eruptions have erupted on Tuesday in the sun: solar flares, which act as beacons, which rapidly disrupt the atmosphere and the coronal eruptions, when parts of the sun's outer atmosphere is blown out.
The matter ejected by the sun is in charge of protons and electrons traveling millions of miles through space. When reaching the Earth's magnetic field, creating an aurora.
The aurora borealis - or northern lights - were named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek word for north wind, Borea.
"It's like a neon sign," said Kunches.
Mike McCarthy, who works at the University of Earth and Space Sciences Department of Washington, saw his first dawn - a green flashing light overhead - in Thompson, Manitoba, a former nickel mining town on a cold March night decades ago.
"It was so cold that it was difficult to see," he said, "but it was an amazing show that I could not look away."
Midnight is usually the best time to see the aurora borealis, Kunches said. The moon is in its first quarter, means that heaven is not too bright.
"Everything depends on local climate, so a lot of time if you can not see more than 500 feet, will miss the brighter the dawn through the roof," said Kunches.
