A brilliant display of the northern lights is captured by the AuroraMAX camera over Yellowknife at 10:51 p.m. MT on Thursday. (AuroraMAX)

A blast of plasma from the sun hit the Earth overnight, creating a brilliant display of lights across the skies of Northern Canada.

An online replay of the celestial show, recorded by the AuroraMAX webcam, shows curtains of green light rippling across the sky over Yellowknife. The site records the aurora each night as part of an educational and outreach program supported by the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Calgary, Astronomy North and the City of Yellowknife.

The lights were the result of a geomagnetic storm caused by three solar flares that blasted toward Earth from the sun between Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, including what NASA called the largest solar flare in four years. The three apparently merged before their arrival, reported the Space Weather Prediction Center run by the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

"What might have been three hits … seems to have merged to be just one interplanetary shock," its website said.

NOAA reported one limited blackout of radio communication in the past 24 hours as a result of geomagnetic activity.

Space Weather Canada reported stormy periods in the band of northern latitudes called the auroral zone between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. ET Friday. The Earth's geomagnetic field in that region remained "active" through the morning due to its interaction with the solar particles, the agency's website said.

Lorne Mckee, a forecaster with Space Weather Canada, said elevated activity is expected in the auroral zone for the "next night or so."

This particular storm was considered "moderate," he added.

Geomagnetic storms have been rare over the past few years because we were in a less active period of the solar cycle, Mckee said. However, we are now moving toward a peak in the cycle, expected in 2013, which means more solar storms are likely on the way over the next couple of years.