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The Northern Lights could be visible from Oregon to New York this Halloween

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Looking for a great show Halloween night? For some Americans, all they have to do is go outside and look up. Scientists say an enormous sun storm this week sent a tremendous cloud of solar-charged particles soaring toward Earth. It's called a CME - coronal mass ejection - may amplify the northern lights this weekend. That means people as far south as New York, Idaho, Illinois, Oregon, Maryland and Nevada could be in for a dazzling display.

The Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., says voltage on some power grids, navigation and radio signals could be briefly affected. Oh, no, during pledge drive season? C. Alex Young, who's associate director for science at the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and must have a business card as big as a dinner plate, told space.com we don't have much to worry about as far as impact to our daily lives. If you see someone on a broom flying across the face of an orange moon on Halloween, it's utterly real.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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