REGION — On the last evening of 2024, as had been the case several times previously northern lights were once again visible to many in the region.

A display of northern lights is seen Tuesday evening, Dec. 31, 2024, on Old Jay Hill Road in Jay. It was the third one of the year. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

In May, NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] said the month had already proven to be a particularly stormy month for the Sun. “During the first full week of May, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections [CMEs] launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades – and possibly one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years,” the agency noted in an article on tracking the most intense solar storm in decades.

An article in the business section of Forbes on Dec. 30 noted the following key facts:

• NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in October that the sun’s 11-year cycle had reached a “solar maximum,” increasing the rate of space weather events like electromagnetic radiation, or solar flares, and bubbles of plasma that burst along with those flares, or coronal mass ejections.

• Solar activity has exceeded expectations during this peak, according to NASA, which expects the “solar maximum” to continue into 2026 before decreasing through 2030.

• In May, NASA said it tracked the strongest geomagnetic storm to reach Earth in two decades—caused by multiple solar flares and at least seven coronal mass ejections—resulting in possibly the strongest northern lights displays “in the past 500 years.”

• Solar activity picked up in the following months before the peak, according to NASA, with the most powerful flare of the solar cycle occurring on Oct. 3, an event that forecasters warned would significantly impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. A “severe” geomagnetic storm was forecast on Oct. 11, when aurora borealis displays became visible as far south as northern Florida.

For the third time in the year, the northern lights are seen Tuesday evening, Dec. 31, 2024, on Old Jay Hill Road in Jay. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

According to NASA, a solar storm is a sudden explosion of particles, energy, magnetic fields, and material blasted into the solar system by the Sun. “The Sun creates a tangled mess of magnetic fields — kind of like a disheveled head of hair after a fitful night of sleep. These magnetic fields get twisted up as the Sun rotates — with its equator rotating faster than its poles. Solar storms typically begin when these twisted magnetic fields on the Sun get contorted and stretched so much that they snap and reconnect (in a process called magnetic reconnection), releasing large amounts of energy.

NASA also reported:

These powerful eruptions can generate any or all of the following:
• A bright flash of light called a solar flare. A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation, or light, on the Sun. These flashes span the electromagnetic spectrum — including X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, and ultraviolet and visible light. Solar flares are the most powerful explosions in the solar system — the biggest ones can have as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs.

• A radiation storm, or flurry of solar particles propelled into space at high speeds. Solar eruptions can accelerate charged particles — electrons and protons — into space at incredibly high speeds, initiating a radiation storm. The fastest particles travel so quickly they can zip across roughly 93 million miles from the Sun to Earth in about 30 minutes or less.

• An enormous cloud of solar material, called a coronal mass ejection, that billows away from the Sun. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is an enormous cloud of electrically charged gas, called plasma, that erupts from the Sun. A single coronal mass ejection can blast billions of tons of material into the solar system all at once. CMEs occur in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona, and often look like giant bubbles bursting from the Sun. CMEs can trigger strong geomagnetic storms when they reach Earth. When they interact with Earth’s magnetic environment, CMEs can bombard Earth with charged particles that interact with atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere to create the aurora borealis and australis (northern and southern lights).

“Solar storms and their related phenomena all wax and wane with the Sun’s 11-year cycle of activity. Such events are more common during solar maximum (or peak of the solar cycle) but are less frequent during solar minimum (or low point of the cycle),” NASA also noted.

On May 10, the Sun Journal reported northern lights were likely to put on a show in Maine on Friday, Saturday nights May 10 and 11. On May 14 the Livermore Falls Advertiser posted photos taken on May 10 in Jay and on May 16 The Franklin Journal shared photos taken that night in Farmington, New Sharon and Weld of the aurora borealis.

Five months later on Oct. 10, the night sky was again filled with a dazzling display as reported in the Livermore Falls Advertiser on Oct. 15.

The display on New Year’s Eve wasn’t as vibrant as the ones earlier this year but was still impressive.

With the “solar maximum” to continue into 2026 before decreasing through 2030, more displays of northern lights may be seen locally this year.