David Kurtz's morning memo column at the TPM site is always well worth reading, and today, above all, for the wonderful images of the aurora borealis he includes.
A photographer's dream. I've been photographing at Mono Lake for many years, and never did I expect to get photos like these, I didn't think it was possible. The aurora came and went for only about 15 minutes with that intensity, shifting colors before vanishing. #Aurora#NorthernLights#MonoLake
Northern lights don't usually reach this far south. Magnetic chaos in the Sun's huge Active Region 3664, however, produced a surface explosion that sent a burst of electrons, protons, and more massive, charged nuclei into the Solar System.
I was kinda expecting half the world to disintegrate into piles of ash, develop a taste for human flesh, or become pigmentless robe wearers only emerging at night....
Incredible northern lights displays were seen throughout the mid-latitudes Friday night into early Saturday. NOAA reported a Kp-Index of 9 for several hours and auroras were reported all the way down to Florida. At 10:00 Pacific Time Saturday, the Kp-Index was 8.
My view outside Kennewick, Washington was incredible. We started in Irrigon, Oregon but moved toward the Horse Heaven Hills to get out of light pollution. The show really ramped up around 23:00 when we were able to see pillars, ripples, and colors with the naked eye. Dim reds, greens, and purples could be seen without aid but popped out vividly in pictures.
This solar storm was produced by multiple solar flares issued from a very active sunspot region on the Sun. This sunspot region spans a distance 17 times the diameter of the Earth. The flares erupted material from the sun, which interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field to produce the northern (and southern) lights.
If you are in the northern third of the United States or Canada and missed the aurora on Friday night, you have another shot at seeing them on Saturday night. The forecast from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center shows Kp values reaching 7 between 09:00 and 12:00 UTC tonight. This is around 02:00 to 05:00 PDT early Sunday.
This isn’t a strong as Friday night, but assuming the forecast is accurate the northern lights tonight will still provide good photography opportunities. Friday night was the first time since 2003 that Kp-9 values had been observed.
A few scattered clouds may be seen on the Palouse and in the Idaho Panhandle with low-level stratus along the Oregon Coast. Overall, the weather appears favorable for northern lights viewing except on the Oregon Coast.
Because Kp-values are forecast to be lower tonight, the further north you are the better. Washington and the Idaho Panhandle have better chances of seeing it than Oregon, but in the Pacific Northwest the best place to be will be British Columbia.
To maximize your chances of seeing the aurora, go to a dark location outside of town with a clear view to the north. The lights were bright enough to be faintly seen by the naked eye in several towns last night (including where I am in Hermiston), but don’t expect that tonight.
Keep an eye on observations and forecasts from the Space Weather Prediction Center to get an idea of what you might see. Observations can be found on their homepage. Note that a G1 storm corresponds to Kp-5, G2 is Kp-6, and so on up to G5 being Kp-9. G5/Kp-9 are the highest values on their respective scales.
The forecast is updated twice daily (at 12:30 and 00:30 UTC). That can be found at this link. To convert from UTC to Pacific Time, just subtract seven hours.
The featured image is of our family aurora watch party outside Kennewick, Washington. (Alisha Ingalls)
Not only did I not have catching the aurora in southeast Kansas on my bingo card, I did not expect that I would be taking so many photos of the aurora towards the south, or during twilight.
Also had the surreal experience of it being bright enough at one point to be able to read the markings on my camera!
Made it back home in time to catch some views of the fading aurora from Missouri en route and at our home in Arkansas.