Unusually beautiful northern lights, or aurora borealis, were seen unusually far south over the skies of the United States on Monday night, thanks to a solar wind from the sun that sent the stunning light show for sky watchers.

An aurora is caused by the collision of charged particles directed by the Earth's magnetic field. As a result of natural mechanism, energy releases in the atmosphere are made visible to the naked eye in the form of colorful lights.

In the northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis, or the northern lights. Auroras illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red.

On Monday, as Earth's magnetic field was strongly compressed by the impact of a coronal mass ejection, the consequent geomagnetic storm displayed aurora borealis across the sky over more than half of the U.S. states including Alabama, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska,Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Maryland, New York,Montana, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, Virginia, Texas, Arizona,Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Arkansas and California, according to Spaceweather.com.

The solar storm was unusual, said Space weather forecast chief Bob Rutledge, as its effect reached Earth eight hours faster than forecasted, arriving just at the perfect time for those in the U.S. to view the northern lights.

Many were amazed at how far to the south the northern lights went - all the way to Arkansas.

They are very rare events, NASA scientist Bill Cooke said, according to ABC News. We don't see them this far south that often.

The northern lights in far south and revealed its beauty in a rare, red glow.

All-red auroras appear at times when intense geomagnetic storms hit the Earth, but are not fully understood, according to Spaceweather.com.

Click [START] to begin the slideshow of stunning northern lights.

NASA California Mexico New York