Thanks to Saturday’s strong eruption on the Sun, the aurora borealis, which is rare in lower latitudes, could also be seen from the territory of the Czech Republic on Sunday evening and night. The Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic informed about this on Facebook. Astronomer Petr Horálek from the Institute of Physics in Opava said that aurora predictions are never 100% accurate, but in this case the chances are not small.
Prague
16:35 24. 3. 2024 (Updated: 17:50 24/03/2024)
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The mentioned cloud should reach the Earth during the night on Monday or rather early in the morning | Photo: Kamila Stichová | Source: Czech Radio
According to Horálek, however, bad weather and the light of the Moon, which is almost full, can make observation difficult. According to meteorologists, due to cloud cover, there will be a greater chance of seeing the phenomenon in Vysočina, Moravia and Silesia.
“Unfortunately, there is and will be a lot of cloud during the evening and night,” he said on the network X Czech Hydrometeorological Institute.
According to him, it will be possible to see the aurora over the northern horizon only in temporary “holes” in the clouds, which will be especially in the southern, southeastern and eastern parts of the country after dark.
“But if the glow really occurs, it could be recorded at least photographically,” said Horálek.
According to him, very strong eruptions were recorded on the Sun on Saturday, during which plasma was released heading towards the Earth. According to Horálek, the monitoring of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Space and Astronautics (NASA) predicts the arrival of a cloud of charged particles and a geomagnetic storm, and therefore possible conditions for the formation of auroras visible even from the Czech Republic.
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The aforementioned cloud should reach Earth during the night on Monday or rather early in the morning, added Horálek.
Aurora Borealis are among the most beautiful natural phenomena in the sky and are quite common in the polar regions, where they are visible all over the sky. If they are visible at lower latitudes, inexperienced observers may mistake them for city lights, according to experts.
“Whether it is really the aurora can be checked very easily on a mobile phone. If you take a picture of it, your mobile phone will show you the color much better than what is visible to the naked eye. Sometimes the so-called colored columns can be seen in the photo, which also proves that it is the aurora borealis,” said Jakub Rozehnal, director of the Planetum organization that protects the Prague planetarium and observatories.
In the Czech Republic, it was probably last possible to observe the northern lights last November.
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