Solar storm may cause northern lights to be visible from New York to Idaho

July 23 (UPI) -- A solar storm could bring the northern lights to the northern United States this week, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said.

The NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G2 geomagnetic storm watch for early Wednesday.

It said the northern lights or aurora borealis, as the phenomenon is known in the Northern Hemisphere, could become visible above "some northern and upper Midwest states" spanning from New York to Idaho as well as parts of Canada.

The phenomenon is caused by a plume of plasma and magnetic field known as a coronal mass ejection or CME.

The CME erupted from the sun on Sunday and is expected to reach Earth by early Wednesday.

"The window for the arrival starts early July 24," said space weather physicist Tamitha Skov on X . "Likely the storm will be fashionably late, due to slow solar wind 'traffic' and an additional glancing storm blow ahead of it.

In geomagnetic storms, the ions collide with Earth's atmosphere and release energy in the form of light that we know as the northern lights.

NOAA classifies the storms on a scale ranging from G1 to G5, with Wednesday's expected G2 representing the second most mild.

A solar storm, initially rated a G5 , in May led to visibility of the northern lights across much of the United States.

In contrast to the stunning light shows, these geomagnetic storms can pose threats to satellites and astronauts in low Earth orbit and problems on Earth ranging from increased radio static to power surges that can result in blackouts.