Those living in Appling and throughout the CSRA were treated to a two-night natural light display never documented to have occurred this far south. The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis were visible in the night sky.
The lightshow that is normally seen in Alaska and other sub-Arctic regions was photographed as far south as Florida. Most of Europe and Asia were treated to the sight as well.
Brilliant colors of magenta, yellow and an eerie green settled over the evening sky with the aurora peaking at around one a.m. Saturday and making an encore early Sunday morning.
Many people posted their pictures to social media, with one local Facebook user writing: “just wanted share what i’m seeing so beautiful 
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For those missed missed it, the show was a result of a G-5 coronal mass ejection of plasma from the sun, what is commonly known as a ‘sun storm.’ This happens when the sun’s activity causes the star to literally belch masses of radiation and solar particulates into Space.
While most people in the Northern Hemisphere enjoyed a Friday night out and later slumbered, the Earth was bombarded with a sun storm that had the potential to disrupt GPS, satellite communications and the North American power grid, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
No major disruptions were reported; however, officials with the FAA as well as astronauts on the International Space Station were on high alert.
Unlike a hurricane or tornado on Earth, the only visible effects of a sun storm are the auroras that appear on the horizon, and the May 11 event was strong enough that the Northern Lights were visible as far south as Florida, according to NOAA.
While the lights are pretty to look at, what is actually being viewed is plasma bouncing off of Earths’ atmosphere and being deflected around the planet.
Even a minor sun storm hitting the Earth would be deadly to every living thing if not for the planet’s magnetic shield, which acts much like the bulbous bow of a ship plowing through water and deflecting the water around the hull. However, the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest around the poles, which allows some of the ejected plasma to enter Earth’s atmosphere.
The amount of plasma that makes it into the Earth’s atmosphere is harmless to life, but can wreak havoc on anything electronic.
According to Live Science, the largest coronal mass ejection on record happened in September of 1859. Astronomer Richard Carrington witnessed a dark red spot appear on the Sun and within the space of five minutes the spot brightened to white and appeared to shoot out of the Sun like a rocket.
“Luminous waves rolled up in quick succession as far as the zenith, some a brilliancy sufficient to cast a perceptible shadow on the ground,” the Times of London reported.
During what is now commonly called the “Carrington Event,” gold miners in the West woke up at one a.m. and brewed coffee thinking the sun had risen. Meanwhile telegraph lines across North America exploded and caught fire.
According to the latest report issued in 2022, the Department of Homeland Security, as well as NASA and NOAA continue to work on advancing technology to shield and protect the electrical grid from natural sun storms or electronic pulse disturbances that could be caused by humans detonating a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere, which could be even more disastrous than a terrestrial nuclear weapon.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
