Saskatchewan Meteorologists Call the Northern Lights a “One-in-100-Year Solar Event” | The Canadian News

Saskatchewan residents are witnessing something truly special this week: the Northern Lights.

The brightness and magnitude of this year is something even avid hunters of the Northern Lights have probably never seen, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“Definitely speaking to veterans, we’re seeing a lot more activity than we’ve normally seen,” Tim Yaworski, a fellow at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, said Thursday.

Yaworski added that the strength of the lights is also rare within city limits.

“That we can go out the back door and look up and see that that’s really very unusual, due to the fact that yes, there is a lot of light pollution,” Yaworski said.

Global News meteorologist Peter Quinlan said the cause of the color explosion begins when the sun emits solar storms.

“When the massive coronal ejection occurs in the sun, it basically sends photons toward the earth and then interacts with the earth’s outer atmosphere,” Quinlan explained. “It causes a small chemical reaction that is what we see as the northern lights.”

These solar storms happen in cycles, roughly every 11 years, but Quinlan said this current cycle is quite rare. The magnitude and rarity of these dancing lights is something that aurora hunters and amateur photographers can hardly ever see.

“This will be a greatly improved activity,” he said. “This is what is called a one-in-100-year solar event.”

“We will see a series of rarer colors in the night sky, such as the rare red aurora you might see, some of the auroras purple, and some that look a bit bluer.”

Quinlan expects this cycle to last for about the next year, so view seekers will still have a chance to see the Northern Lights in all their brilliant splendor.

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