Recent bursts of solar activity could mean the northern lights are visible from Northern California as early as Thursday night, experts say.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center has issued watches for strong geomagnetic storms Friday through Sunday, with a severity of 3 out of 5. This means Californians could have additional viewing opportunities throughout the weekend.

If the conditions are right, “seeing the aurora in far Northern California is certainly possible,” said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Space Weather Prediction Center. This is especially true with digital technology, like sensitive cellphone cameras, Dahl added.

“On the other hand, if it’s the low end of a G3, the chances really significantly go down for Northern California,” Dahl added.

The sun has produced solar flares Tuesday and Thursday this week, both associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, plumes of solar material and magnetic fields currently en route toward Earth. The solar flare Thursday was the largest of the current solar cycle, and the biggest since 2017.

After hurtling 93 million miles through space, a coronal mass ejection is expected to arrive Friday, with another expected to appear Saturday afternoon or evening. When CMEs interact with Earth’s magnetic field, they can potentially damage power grids and interfere with satellite activity. But they can also produce the bright colors associated with the northern lights.

A vivid display, however, is not guaranteed.

“There is quite a bit of uncertainty in both the strength and the orientation of the magnetic field that will be embedded in the cloud that hits us,” said Mark Conde, a professor of physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

These properties affect how effectively Earth’s magnetic field is able to deflect the incoming CME, Conde explained. If a CME’s magnetic field is configured such that it can couple easily with Earth’s magnetic field, there can be bigger impacts.

Space Weather Prediction Center forecasters are waiting to see how the first CME unfolds.

“We may upgrade from a G3 to a G4 or just keep things as they are,” Dahl said.

Solar activity, which rises and falls on an 11-year cycle, is currently peaking, meaning there may continue to be opportunities to view the northern lights over California.bolly4umovies