What are geomagnetic storms? What happens when Northern Lights are visible?

(CBS DETROIT) – There will be another spectacle in the sky on Thursday evening as the Northern Lights will be visible as far away as Alabama and Northern California.

If you haven't seen the Northern Lights from the comfort of your backyard lately, you still have a chance as another major geomagnetic storm hits the Earth.

Solar cycles last about 11 years on average, and we are nearing the peak of this cycle. This particular cycle is quite active, with at least 50 X-class flares in the last five years. However, 46 of these outbreaks occurred last year alone.

The classification of solar flares begins with the A class, the weakest classification with barely noticeable effects on Earth. The strongest classification we are currently experiencing is an X-class solar flare. These lead to radio outages and long-lasting radiation storms worldwide. Within each of these classifications there are levels between one and nine. The higher the number, the stronger the torch.

On Tuesday night, an X1 flare emerged from the central part of the sun. This coronal mass ejection (CME) was traveling toward Earth at about 2.5 million miles per hour. At 10:49 a.m. Thursday, the CME finally reached Earth's DSCOVR satellite, located 1 million miles away. Thirty minutes later it entered Earth's atmosphere.

“So the eruption happens. It's an explosion of a million tons of plastic gas and a magnetic field, shot from space and headed toward Earth, or at least part of it. It'll take a few days to get here,” said Bill Murtagh, forecaster at the Space Weather Prediction Center. “It hits the Earth's magnetic field, the two magnetic fields couple the magnetic field that was in that cloud, the coronal mass ejection and the Earth's magnetic field, and these energetic particles flow into the high latitudes, interact with the Earth's atmosphere and trigger this.” Beautiful light, show the northern lights. And of course, people in Michigan will also see the Southern Lights when the storms are this bad.

Shawn Dahl, a meteorologist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, says the way CMEs impact Earth is similar to an approaching cold front. Initially there is a strong shock like a gust of wind, but then it takes a while for cold temperatures to set in. It will also take a while for the strongest part of the magnetic cloud to settle over Earth.

Therefore, on a scale of 1 to 5, with five being extreme, this storm is rated “severe” as G4. While we haven't had any confirmed disruptions yet, we will still be feeling the effects of this storm tomorrow, and that includes the chance to see the Northern Lights.