Long Island parks stay open late in case Northern Lights make appearance in skies

Long Island parks will stay open late Friday to allow stargazers to get a rare view of the Aurora Borealis lights that have been dancing across local skies this week.

The lights, which are the result of a geomagnetic storm, were on display Thursday night in vivid colors, although they could only be seen through a cellphone camera.

While the NOAA website tracking viewing areas in the United States indicates such a display is not likely Friday night, a local astronomer says he will be looking for them anyway.

Members of the Amateur Observers’ Society of New York, which hosts sky watches and other events year-round on Long Island, witnessed the aurora’s hues Monday evening, said president Jason Cousins.

Cousins said there's a 5% to 15% chance that the aurora borealis would be visible Friday night on Long Island, which is expected to have a clear night.

"For astronomers, (if) there's a chance, we go," he said. He added: "You take whatever clear sky you got and you make the best of it."

The light show in the sky is created when solar flares hit the Earth's atmosphere. Known also as the Northern Lights, they are usually visible just after sunset or just before sunrise and appear in conjunction with geomagnetic storms. 

The parks staying open late for the Northern Lights include: Jones Beach State Park — West End 2 (west parking lot), Sunken Meadow State Park — Field 3, Montauk Point State Park — upper parking lot, Wildwood State Park — main parking lot, Orient Beach State Park — main parking lot and Hallock State Park Preserve.

"If the timing is right, if a solar flare is ejected off the sun at a certain point in time while it’s rotation is in advance of our rotation ... there’s time for it to get here, then we have an aurora," Cousins said earlier this week. "The size of the flare on the sun is what affects how far south we’re going to see it."

A sunspot produced a strong solar flare Tuesday, which will take around two days to travel and be visible from Earth, said Donald Lubowich, the coordinator of astronomy outreach and a researcher with the department of physics and astronomy at Hofstra University.

While it may be possible to see the lights, he said the moon and light pollution could impact views. Looking north, it may be possible to see slight shades of red or green, but Lubowich recommends snapping a photo for a better view. He also recommended viewing the lights on the East End or other locations that are "very dark."

"It probably won’t be that brilliant with the eye," Lubowich said. "Cellphones work really well, digital cameras work well, eyes, not so good, unless you’re really up north ... It will be possible, but you never know, it's weather."

But these solar flares are not all about the pretty colors. During the solar maximum, the sun’s most active period and a time of increased electromagnetic activity during its regular, approximately 11-year cycle, the sun "can unleash immense explosions of light, energy and solar radiation, all of which create conditions known as space weather," according to a NASA news release.

"Space weather can affect satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications systems such as radio and GPS — and power grids on Earth," according to NASA. "Solar activity ... has sparked displays of aurora and led to impacts on satellites and infrastructure in recent months."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday into Friday. The Associated Press reported that the agency alerted the Federal Emergency Management Agency about possible power disruptions as they grapple with Hurricanes Helene and Milton and notified operators of power plants and orbiting spacecraft to take precautions.

Even before the days of smartphones, the internet and even FM radio, solar flares have disrupted essential communication and power systems. He pointed to the Carrington Event of 1859, the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history that caused fires in telegraph stations, and a 1989 geometric storm that caused a multi-hour power outage in Canada, as concerning examples.

Lubowich said that as the particles from Tuesday’s solar flare event reach the Earth’s atmosphere, a reaction he likened to being inside a fluorescent light bulb, the northern lights will appear and "it could impact power grids possibly Thursday and Friday."

He said NOAA classified the event as a comparable intensity as the showing of the aurora borealis back in May, when it was visible as far south as Florida. The Associated Press reported that May's solar storm resulted in no major disruptions.

With the solar maximum still underway, Lubowich said it’s likely Long Islanders will have more chances to catch the aurora borealis in coming weeks, but nothing is certain.

"We don’t know," Lubowich said. "Sometimes with solar maximums you see lots of sunspots, you just don’t know."

With Matthew Chayes