On the evening of May 10, 2024, the sky in Vancouver turned into a magnificent palette of purple, pink, blue, and green lights, stunning many residents of Greater Vancouver. It was a spectacle that left people in awe.
That night, the strongest G4-class geomagnetic storm since 2005 hit the Northern Hemisphere, with at least seven intense coronal mass ejections (CME) triggering auroras in various regions of North America. Residents in major cities had the rare opportunity to witness the auroras on the night of May 10 through the late hours of Mother’s Day weekend.
As expected, the auroras graced cities like Vancouver, Burnaby, and West Vancouver, allowing residents to witness this natural wonder. People were stepping out of their homes, capturing the rare phenomenon that hadn’t been seen in two decades.
As the auroras danced in the night sky, their vibrant colors lighting up the darkness, it was like a celestial light show igniting endless imagination among the spectators.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s official website, Michael Hajek, an expert in external dosimetry at the agency, explained, “Cosmic ray particles that slip into the Earth’s magnetic poles can generate truly dazzling and colorful auroras.” Astrophysicist Joan Feynman discovered these magical phenomena mainly occurring in the high-latitude regions around the North and South Poles are the result of charged particles from solar wind colliding with gases in the atmosphere. The most common pale yellow-green auroras are produced by oxygen molecules, while nitrogen creates blue or purple-red auroras. ◇