The Northern Lights could be seen in the Chicago area this week – NBC Chicago

A powerful geomagnetic storm could make the northern lights visible in the Chicago area on several nights this week.

According to the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center, a G3 geomagnetic storm watch is in effect following a series of coronal mass ejections (CME) from the Sun earlier this week that could make the aurora borealis visible across much of the United States.

According to the NBC 5 Storm Team, the Northern Lights could be visible Thursday evening, with the greatest chance of seeing the show occurring in the late evening hours between 8 and 10 p.m. They could still be visible later, but cloud cover could spoil the view for some in the area.

If residents miss the show on Thursday evening, it is possible that the lights will be visible again on Friday and conditions will be significantly clearer across the region. However, the aurora borealis may not be as strong, meaning using a phone camera could be a better way to see it, according to officials.

According to SWPC, CMEs are “large explosions of plasma and magnetized particles from the solar corona.” These ejections increase in size as they approach Earth's atmosphere and can cause geomagnetic storms when they arrive.

The Northern Lights occur when these charged particles collide with the Earth's magnetic field, interacting with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere and producing bright and wavy colors in the sky.

The Northern Lights are generally only visible at high altitudes, but cases like this week's geomagnetic storm can cause these particles to be visible over greater distances.