Here’s how to photograph the northern lights lighting up St. Louis skies this week

Missouri and Illinois residents are being treated to a rare spectacle this week as powerful geomagnetic storms light up skies across the state with the aurora borealis — more commonly known as the northern lights.

A geomagnetic storm happens when charged particles from the sun’s atmosphere collide with Earth’s magnetic field. In addition to creating dazzling curtains of color , these storms can disrupt technology on Earth , from satellites and GPS systems to radio communications and the power grid.

On Tuesday night, the skies glowed with ribbons of pink and green — more easily visible in rural areas than cities like St. Louis and Kansas City. The colorful show stems from coronal mass ejections , massive bursts of plasma and magnetic energy from the sun’s outer atmosphere