A-Rare-a Borealis in Rockaway

 A-Rare-a Borealis in Rockaway

You didn’t need to go to Iceland to check the Northern Lights off of your bucket list last week. In an extremely rare event, on Thursday, October 10, the aurora borealis came to Rockaway.

At about 7:30 p.m. and again after 10 p.m., the Northern Lights were visible around the peninsula, especially in areas with limited light pollution. Using night mode on phones and cameras, many were able to capture the true vivid green, red and purple colors on display through photos.

The northern lights were visible in New York due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun that caused a geomagnetic storm with a Kp index of 8. The Kp index is a way to measure the strength of geomagnetic activity, and a Kp index of 8 indicates a G4 storm, which is considered severe.

Photos by Kevin Boyle, Theresa Hyland, Katie McFadden and Madga Zerbe.

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