Geomagnetic storms occur when charged particles from the sun collide with Earth’s atmosphere, creating auroras.

For the unversed, a severe geomagnetic storm occurs when the Earth's magnetic field is disturbed by magnetic field or plasma structures, such as corotating interaction regions (CIRs) and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These materials are occasionally ejected by the sun and appear to have a somewhat bubble-like structure.

Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.

A severe (G4) geomagnetic storm impacted the planet at 8 p.m. tonight, unfortunately for Michigan, other than those south of I-94, cloud cover will hinder the view. Tomorrow may be better.

The sun just spat out several coronal mass ejections that could trigger a serious solar storm on Wednesday A powerful solar storm could spark auroras as far south as northern California and Alabama on Wednesday,

Dazzling images of the northern lights are lighting up social media after a powerful solar storm struck Earth, sending waves of color across the night sky in places rarely touched by auroras.The phenomenon,