When and where to see the northern lights after the latest solar storm
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Another display of the northern lights could be visible this weekend in several U.S. states following a severe solar storm.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center forecast a planetary K-index — which characterizes the magnitude of geomagnetic storms – of five out of a scale of nine for Friday and Saturday, meaning that auroral activity would likely increase on those nights.
The states with the highest chances of seeing the auroras include Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Montana, according to NOAA.
Depending on the strength of the coronal mass ejection, states like South Dakota, Wisconsin and Maine could witness the northern lights as well — although the likelihood is lower.
The sun’s magnetic field is currently in its solar maximum, meaning an uptick in northern lights activity is expected over the next several months, as more sunspots with the intense magnetic activity are predicted to occur.
These sunspots can produce solar flares and coronal mass ejections that manifest in a dazzling light show when they reach Earth. Auroras occur when a blast of solar material and strong magnetic fields from the sun interact with the atoms and molecules in Earth’s outer atmosphere, according to NOAA. The interaction causes the atoms in Earth’s atmosphere to glow, creating a spectrum of color in the night sky.
It is difficult to predict the exact timing and location of northern lights viewing because of the distance of the sun — about 93 million miles away from Earth, according to NASA.
A citizen science platform called Aurorasaurus allows people to sign up for alerts that an aurora may be visible in their area. Users are also able to report back to the website about whether they saw an aurora, which helps the platform send alerts that the northern lights are being seen in real time.
The best times to view the northern lights are between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, according to NOAA. Ensuring a dark setting is the best way to see the aurora. Getting away from light pollution, and even the bright light of a full moon, will also enhance the viewing experience.
Smartphone cameras are more sensitive to the array of colors presented by the auroras and can capture the northern lights while on night mode, even if they are not visible to the naked eye, according to NASA.
(GLASGOW, Ky.) — Eli Heacock was like many 16-year-olds.
The Glasgow, Kentucky, teenager enjoyed playing tennis, telling “dad jokes” and spending time with his father, who his mom said was “his best friend.”
“He was our tornado. He kept us on our toes all the time,” said his mother, Shannon Heacock.
But everything changed in an instant after Eli Heacock died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 28, his mom told ABC News.
Since his death, his mom said local and federal investigators have said they believe Eli Heacock may have been targeted in an alleged sextortion scheme.
“Eli was on a good track. We had no reason to believe there was an issue at all. We knew nothing about sextortion or how it works,” Eli Heacock’s father, John Burnett, told ABC News.
Sextortion is a term “used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video,” according to the FBI. Once the offender receives the explicit content from the child, they then threaten to release the compromising content “unless the victim produces additional explicit material,” the FBI said on its website.
One type of sextortion is “financially motivated sextortion,” which follows a similar pattern, but is motivated by the goal of financial gain, not sexual gratification, the FBI said. After receiving explicit material, the offender will threaten to release the content unless a payment is made, the FBI said.
Financial sextortion has resulted “in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,” the FBI said on its website.
But, the explicit pictures do not need to be taken by the child to qualify as sextortion, Burnett said. In his son’s case, he said the offender made AI-generated images of Eli Heacock, sent them to the teenager and demanded $3,000 or else the pictures would be released or his family would be harmed.
“Their intention was to convince Eli their sincerity that they could, in fact, harm him or someone he loved with pictures that they generated,” Burnett told ABC News.
His mother said she regularly checked her son’s phone, but the interaction occurred during the night and the situation must have “put him in panic mode.”
In the text messages she saw, her son sent a portion of money to the offender, to which the anonymous user replied, “This is not enough.”
Eli Heacock’s twin sister discovered her brother’s body, ran to her parents and said “Eli was hurt,” Shannon Heacock said.
The 16-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 28, his mother said.
“How can your lives change that fast over merely $3,000 someone wanted off the internet from a kid? I play a lot of ‘What if I did this? What if I did that?’ We don’t need anybody to add to our guilt because we carry it very heavily right now,” Shannon Heacock told ABC News.
Upon arriving at the hospital, a local FBI detective reviewed Eli Heacock’s phone, recognized it as a potential sextortion case and put the teenager’s phone on airplane mode, his mother said.
The investigation into Eli Heacock’s death is still in its beginning stages, his father said, with both local detectives and federal investigators reviewing the contents of the 16-year-old’s phone.
The family has also been in contact with Rep. Steve Riley, a lawmaker in the Kentucky House of Representatives, who has championed a bill in the Kentucky legislature making sextortion a felony and establishing penalties for those convicted of the crime. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Andy Beshear to be signed into law, Shannon Heacock said.
The Heacocks are not the only family mourning the loss of a loved one after a sextortion scheme. In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion — up from 10,731 reports in 2022.
Shannon Heacock urges parents to check their children’s phones at all times because, in her experience, “even the happiest child is hiding something.”
“It’s no longer to be scared of the white van that drives around, you have to be scared of the internet,” Shannon Heacock said.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.
(WASHINGTON) — A member of the DOGE team assigned to work at the IRS will not be granted broad access to Americans’ personal tax information, according to an agreement obtained by ABC News that heads off a request that had sparked concern within the IRS.
As ABC News previously reported, DOGE had sought broad access to an IRS system that contains the personal tax information of millions of Americans, a move that would have given them visibility into personal information including taxpayer names and addresses, social security numbers, details on how much individuals earn and owe, property information, and even details related to child custody agreements.
The terms of the DOGE employee’s temporary assignment at the IRS was laid out in a five-page memorandum of agreement between the Office of Personnel Management and the Internal Revenue Service. The memo states that the DOGE employee, Gavin Kliger, will be assigned to the IRS for a term of 120 days with the possibility of an additional 120-day extension.
In bold letters, the agreement states that “it is not the intention of this assignment for the Detailee to be provided or gain access to returns or return information … including any personally identifiable information associated with such taxpayer records.”
Instead, any information viewed will remain anonymous, the agreement said.
“Should access to IRS systems that contain returns or return information become necessary as part of the Detailee’s duties under this agreement, that access shall only be provided if it is anonymized in a manner that cannot be associated with, directly or indirectly, any taxpayer,” the agreement states.
Kliger has a host of duties while at the IRS, according to the memo. They include “surveying IRS software,” “identifying opportunities to modernize IRS technology and software,” and “implementing safeguards to prevent fraud.”
Kliger, who is technically an employee of the Office of Personnel Management, is also working across other agencies including OPM, USAID, and the State Department, sources told ABC News.
An IRS spokesperson did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. A spokesperson for OPM declined to comment.
(WASHINGTON) — On a call with reporters on Inauguration Day morning, incoming White House officials previewed a series of executive orders and other actions they said the incoming Trump administration plans to take to address immigration and U.S. border issues.
“We will protect the American people against invasion,” one of the incoming officials said during the call. “This is about national security. This is about public safety. And this is about the victims of some of the most violent, abusive criminals we’ve seen enter our country in our lifetime. And it ends today.”
Many of the proposed executive orders revealed on Monday’s call require help from international partners like Mexico and would almost certainly spark legal battles.
Although one of the incoming officials said that the call would “preview a series of actions to be taken today,” it was not clear from the call, during which officials took very few questions from reporters, that everything about which they spoke would actually happen Monday.
Here’s a look at some of the promised executive actions:
Declaring a national emergency at the southern border
The incoming administration will be declaring a national emergency at the southern border. This will allow DoD to deploy armed forces to the region and free up resources to build a wall and other barriers there, as he promised to do during his first administration.
“What this action does is it deploys armed forces, erects physical barriers by directing DOD and DHS secretaries to finish the wall along the border, and allows for counter-UAS capabilities near the southern border in addition,” an incoming White House official said.
It’s not totally clear what the official meant by “counter-UAS capabilities,” but it is important to note that since at least the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has used drones and other UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) to help conduct surveillance of the southwest border.
The secretary of defense will be directed to deploy armed troops as well as the National Guard to the border, according to the call. In response to a follow-up question, an incoming White House official was unable to say how many troops will be deployed, responding that the decision “is going to be up to the secretary of defense.”
Clarifying the military’s role in ‘protecting the territorial integrity of the United States’
This executive order aims to allow the military to “prioritize our borders and territorial integrity,” an incoming White House official said during the call. The official further said that the order will direct the military to plan operations to maintain territorial integrity by “repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
Reinstating ‘remain in Mexico,’ ending ‘catch and release,’ and building the wall
In addition to creating federal and state partnerships to help enforce immigration policies and deportation priorities, this executive order would also aim to end the practice of “catch and release,” and mandates building a wall along the southern U.S. border.
Though often used pejoratively, “catch and release” describes the practice of releasing undocumented immigrants after they’ve been processed at the U.S. border and while they await immigration hearings in court. The term originated during the George W. Bush administration and describes a practice that has been implemented during every administration since, including Donald Trump’s first administration.
Because it’s logistically impossible to safely detain migrants indefinitely, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other authorities release some migrants into the community to wait out their legal proceedings.
Remain in Mexico is a policy implemented during the first Trump administration that required some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, rather than in the U.S., as their petitions were processed in U.S. courts. This action would require Mexico’s cooperation, which incoming White House officials did not address during Monday’s call.
Trump also promised during his first presidential campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and signed an executive order to that end days after assuming office. Few new sections of barrier along the border were erected during his administration, though many sections of damaged or outdated barriers were repaired or replaced.
Designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
The incoming administration will sign an executive order to designate drug cartels and other criminal organizations, including the U.S.-El Salvadoran-based MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations or specifically designated global terrorists (SDGT).
An incoming White House official said Monday that the order will direct authorities to specifically remove members of Tren de Agua from the United States. And, citing the Alien Enemies Act enacted more than two centuries ago, the official said Tren de Agua has become an “irregular armed force of Venezuela’s government conducting a predatory incursion and invasion into the United States.”
‘End[ing] asylum … to illegals’ The incoming White House official said the Trump administration is going to “end asylum and close the border to illegals via proclamation.” Essentially, this means undocumented migrants caught between ports of entry will not be able to claim asylum, which in turn will “create an immediate removal process without possibility of asylum,” the incoming official said.
Like other executive orders announced Monday, this one would possibly face legal hurdles for several reasons. Current laws allow asylum seekers the ability to attempt to request asylum or protection once they enter the country, regardless of if they crossed between ports of entry. This has been the basis for several legal battles against some of the more recent asylum restrictions that the Biden administration implemented in June 2024.
Suspending refugee resettlement
The incoming official said during Monday’s call that the incoming Trump administration also plans to suspend refugee resettlements for at least four months.
Ending birthright citizenship
An incoming officials on Monday’s call said “We are then going to end birthright citizenship. This action gives effect to the phrase ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ in the 14th Amendment to clarify that … the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States.”
It was unclear from Monday’s call whether ending birthright citizenship will be part of the day’s announcements or will come later. Trump made the same promise during his first term in office.
Enhanced vetting
The incoming official said Monday that the new administration is also going to “enhance vetting and screening of illegal aliens” and direct agencies to provide recommendations to the president for suspending entry for migrants from “countries of particular concern.”
Creating ‘homeland security task forces’
To help target gang members, criminals and other undocumented migrants, the new administration is planning to establish “federal homeland security task forces” so federal, state and local law enforcement can cooperate further in removing them.
Restoring the death penalty when a law enforcement officer is murdered According to the incoming official, the new administration plans to “restore the death penalty in public safety” by directing the attorney general to seek capital punishment when an undocumented immigrant murders a law enforcement officer or commits other capital crimes. The new administration will also encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to also pursue the death penalty in such cases, according to the incoming official.
