Where the United States could see the bright northern lights this week

Material from the Sun colliding with Earth's atmosphere could create a vivid display of the northern lights in parts of the upper Midwest and northern United States early this week.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch Monday through Wednesday after observing a coronal mass ejection (CME) sending plasma toward Earth. A minor to moderate geomagnetic storm is expected, according to SWPC. The Storm Watch helps inform communications, energy and space industries about the potential impacts of space weather. However, the audience will not be affected.

Meet Steve: New space weather phenomena that can be seen using aurora lights

Solar winds It causes reactions in the ground Atmosphere Which creates the aurora borealis or northern lights. Intense Space climate Events can cause auroras to appear far from Earth's poles, which may be the case this week.

The distance the lights reach from the poles can be determined by the Kp, which falls on a scale from 1 to 9 to measure the intensity of a geomagnetic storm.

According to SWPC's Aurora Dashboard, Kp 6 was expected to appear Monday night, providing the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights across the northern United States. However, the Nor'easter moved to the northeast late Monday obscuring views for those in the northeast and part of the Great Lakes regions.

There are still more opportunities through Wednesday night to catch a glimpse of the dancing lights — if the clouds clear.

On Tuesday, the aurora borealis may appear again in the far northern United States, however, clouds will again be dense across most of the viewing area.

If there is a break in the clouds, cities including Minneapolis and Milwaukee could see the northern lights in the sky. The lights will also appear low on the horizon for Boise, Lincoln and Indianapolis – again, if the clouds cooperate.

The Sun emits a powerful solar flare that causes a storm of solar radiation and a possible radio blackout

CMEs take between one and three days to reach Earth's atmosphere. Over the past week, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded 19 coronal ejection bursts coming from the Sun.