Name: #TheMoment a solar storm fired up the northern lights
Uploaded: 2025-11-13T08:20:30.121Z
Duration: 1 min 21 s
Description: Trenten Pentelichuk tells The National about the moment he saw the northern lights illuminate the sky where he lives in St. Paul, Alta.

Trenten Pentelichuk tells The National about the moment he saw the northern lights illuminate the sky where he lives in St. Paul, Alta.

Saint Paul

A recent solar storm resulted in an unusually vibrant display of the northern lights over St. Paul, Alberta, Canada. Observers reported seeing vivid colors, including rare reds, without the aid of cameras, indicating a particularly strong geomagnetic storm.

The phenomenon was attributed to powerful solar eruptions known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), which interact with Earth's magnetic field. According to NASA, this heightened aurora activity is linked to the sun reaching the maximum phase of its 11-year solar cycle, causing more frequent and intense geomagnetic storms.

#TheMoment a solar storm fired up the northern lights

As soon as it got dark here, you could already see in the sky that the northern lights were starting. You could already see the vivid colors, the pinks, the greens. The vibrant colors are always nice to see. You normally don't see the reds visually, and you can clearly see them last night. Being able to experience seeing them without looking through cameras is pretty exciting and doesn't happen all that often. When they're that bright, it kind of never gets old, everything is changing in front of you. You know it's a pretty strong storm when you get to see it. The powerful solar eruptions from the sun, they're called CMEs or Coronal Mass Ejections. When they get pushed from the sun, they collide with the Earth's magnetic field and then they create a geomagnetic storm. It's just kind of a spectacle to see, definitely planning on going out again tonight. Tonight and tomorrow, there's a solid chance you will see them. Apparently, according to NASA, what's happening is that the sun is at the maximum phase of a solar cycle that sees its magnetic poles sort of swap places every 11 years or so. So that's why we're seeing so much more of this activity. Never seen the red sky like that though, that's astonishing.

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