A powerful geomagnetic storm last week gave way to a rare sighting of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. The Northern Lights are commonly seen in Alaska, Canada and Iceland as portions of them are located near the earth’s magnetic poles, but a geomagnetic storm of severe magnitude made it possible to see the aurora as far south as Arizona. Catching a glimpse of them requires electrons from solar wind to hit the electrons that are already trapped around earth’s magnetic field which then creates a slingshot. The geomagnetic storms come from a large expulsion of plasma from the sun that causes the magnetic field around the earth to shake. Last week’s registered a storm severity level of four out of five. Several applications are available on a smartphone to assist in knowing when to look for the aurora, just a simple search on the app store will help find one.