Did you venture out past your bedtime to see the northern lights this week?

They were incredible. We had two nights in a row of strong geomagnetic storms powered by multiple, powerful solar flares from a large sunspot group numbered region 4274. Two of those blasts launched back-to-back salvos of billions of tons of charged particles at Earth called coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Sometimes these solar storms barrel past the planet with little effect. Not this time. Instead, the magnetic clouds coupled with Earth's magnetic field and loaded it with the materials and energy to power auroras from dusk till dawn.

Word got out and people took notice. Rural roads around Duluth were jammed with traffic. We were all in search of a dark sky and a place to park for the chance to look up and be hu

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