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A video shows the Northern Lights dancing across the Minnesota night sky

Posted on by Vanessa
A video shows the Northern Lights dancing across the Minnesota night sky

Another geomagnetic storm made the colorful Aurora Borealis phenomena visible in the Midwest over the weekend.

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A photographer in Minnesota managed to capture video of a mesmerizing northern lights display, with swirls of red and green dancing across the night sky.

Another geomagnetic storm made the colorful Aurora Borealis phenomenon visible in the Midwestern United States over the weekend, and Carol Bauer was on hand in Grand Marais on Sunday to document it.

“My husband and I traveled to Grand Marais to see the fall colors and were thrilled to also get a great view of the Northern Lights,” Bauer told Storyful.

Bauer is among the millions of Americans who should expect to have more opportunities to see the impressive spectacle in the coming months as the sun reaches the peak of its 11-year cycle.

Watch the video Carol Bauer took of the Northern Lights:

Northern Lights visible throughout the Midwest

Last week, a massive solar flare accompanied by coronal mass ejections — clouds of plasma and charged particles — barreled toward our planet, triggering a geomagnetic storm that made the auroras visible in several northern U.S. states.

Although the natural light display in Earth's sky is known to be best seen at high latitudes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the Northern Lights were visible across the United States over the weekend. In addition to Minnesota, the stunning display of jets, spirals and flares could be seen at locations along the U.S.-Canada border and as far south as Oregon and Pennsylvania, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

Peak of Northern Lights activity: What you should know when the sun reaches its solar maximum

The peak of aurora activity coincides with the peak of the solar cycle

Luckily for aurora hunters, there will soon be many more opportunities to catch the northern lights.

Electromagnetic activity is increasing as the Sun continues to reach the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, which is expected to occur in 2025, according to NASA.

As the sun reaches the peak of solar cycle 25, sunspots are expected to increase in regions with intense magnetic activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When this magnetic activity is released, it produces intense bursts of radiation that cause solar flares to race toward Earth at the speed of light.

Some of these eruptions may be accompanied by coronal mass ejections, which emerge from the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona.

These ejecta can collide with Earth's magnetosphere, the barrier that protects humanity from the harshest effects of space weather, and create geomagnetic storms that reveal spectacular views of the northern lights in parts of the country where auroras are not often visible.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and breaking news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

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