Northern lights can be seen in the eastern US amid a “severe” solar storm

A “severe” solar storm made the Northern Lights visible much further south than usual in the US, producing a stunning display of colors in the eastern US on Thursday evening.

As the sun set, pink, purple and green skies could be seen from Maine to New York, Washington, DC and beyond.

However, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the radiant storm holds the potential to disrupt modern technology.

A fast-moving coronal mass ejection (CME) — a powerful burst of magnetized plasma from the solar corona — erupted from the Sun on Tuesday evening, prompting NOAA's Space Prediction Center to issue a rare G4-class geomagnetic storm watch that monitors for “adverse impacts “indicates “critical technology and potentially widespread voltage control issues, according to NOAA.

According to NOAA, the CME caused a moderate solar storm here on Earth on Thursday and Friday.

According to NASA, a solar or geomagnetic storm occurs when the charged particles in the solar wind interact with the Earth's magnetic field and cause a significant disturbance.

One of the most common manifestations of a CME's impact on Earth is the appearance of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. The interaction between the CME and the Earth's magnetic field or magnetosphere creates bands of light in the sky in the far north that glow green, pink and other colors

The stronger the solar storm, the further south the Northern Lights can be seen. But the further south you go, the more reddish rather than green hue is visible, as the curvature of the Earth causes the particles to interact higher up in the atmosphere.

NOAA said the northern lights were visible across much of the northern half of the U.S. on Thursday and could extend into Alabama and northern California.

NOAA ranks geomagnetic storms on a five-point scale, with the most severe G5-rated storms capable of causing widespread voltage control problems that could lead to power outages or even the complete collapse of some power grid systems. In this scenario, auroras could potentially be seen as far away as Florida and South Texas.

According to NOAA, strong geomagnetic storms can also bombard Earth with subatomic particles and potentially disrupt navigation systems by disrupting radio and GPS signals and power grids.

Geomagnetic storms can also add energy to currents in the Earth's magnetic field, which can increase the density distribution in the upper atmosphere and cause additional drag for satellites in low orbits.

Daily life is typically not severely affected, and power grids are prepared for minor disruptions due to abnormal activity on power lines, Shawn Dahl, coordinator of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, told ABC News earlier this year.

Last month, the Northern Lights show stretched to Arizona, Mississippi and Texas. Earlier this week the Northern Lights were seen in Alaska.

This busy series of Northern Lights activity will soon reach its peak as the sun reaches its solar maximum in the coming months.

According to NOAA, the sun's magnetic field reaches its solar maximum every 11 years, when the number of solar flares is highest.

Earth is currently approaching the peak of solar cycle 25, where more sunspots with intense magnetic activity are expected.

Major space weather events are possible throughout 2024, with the current cycle expected to peak between November 2024 and March 2026, according to NOAA.