People across the United States may have another chance to see the northern lights dance across their night sky. For the third time this week, The Washington Post reports people across portions of the U.S. may get the chance to see the northern lights. A solar storm is expected to hit Earth on Thursday, potentially bringing the lights as far south as Alabama and California.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Bethany Cobb Kung, associate professor of physics and honors at the George Washington University. Kung is an astronomer who received her Ph.D. at Yale University in 2008 for research on massive stellar explosions called gamma-ray bursts. Her expertise includes astrophysics (gamma-ray bursts, time-domain, astronomy) and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Kung says we're near a time of high solar activity (the Sun cycles up and down in activity levels every 11 years), so the uptick in aurora is not unexpected but definitely fun to watch, if you get lucky! She can speak generally as an astronomer about the phenomenon of solar flares/CMEs and "space weather."
If you would like to speak with Prof. Kung, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass Restuccio at [email protected].
-GW-
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