CME IMPACT: A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT). According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosynchronous orbit for a brief period between 19:06 UT and 19:11 UT. Earth-orbiting spacecraft could have been directly exposed to solar wind plasma during that time.
The impact also sparked a geomagnetic storm, underway now. Geir Øye sends this picture from Ørsta, Norway:
(http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2011/24oct11/norway2_strip.jpg)
"These are the strongest and most beautiful auroras I've ever seen," says Øye, a veteran observer of Northern Lights. "I can only imagine what the display must have been further north."
High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the CME impact. The best time to look is usually during the hours around local midnight. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
some real nice shots here..sorry couldn't move em
en~joy and wow
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/25/8474218-northern-lights-go-way-way-south?GT1=43001
Alan Boyle writes
A solar outburst sparked surprising displays of the northern lights as far south as Arkansas, Mississippi and North Carolina tonight, marking one of the farthest-reaching auroral shows in years.
As word spread about the geomagnetic storm, photos streamed onto the Web from the usual places, such as Norway, Sweden and Iceland, but also from locales that are typically too far south to see the northern lights: Oklahoma ... Kansas ... Kentucky ... Tennessee ... Virginia.
Among the websites tracking the fireworks are SpaceWeather.com, the Weather Channel and Universe Today.
Arkansas photographer Brian Emfinger was alerted to the northern lights by SpaceWeather.com's aurora alert. "I ran out and put my camera out and immediately saw reddish aurora," he wrote. "I ran out into the field, and within a few minutes the aurora went crazy!"
Very nice photos, thanks Sky!
Visited the link you gave, and found an update; Emfinger has assembled a 2h 22m time-lapse movie of the display: 29 MB wmv.
Watched it, and its incredible! An explosion like burst of red aurora,
amazing! Never seen anything like it before!
http://www.spaceweather.com/
Quote
At noon Mountain Standard Time on October 24, 2011, a coronal mass ejection from the Sun hit the Earth, strongly compressing its magnetic field and sparking an intense geomagnetic storm, reaching a peak planetary K index of 7. By the time dark had fallen enough here to see the aurora, the K index had fallen to 6, though still classified as "storm level". The result was a spectacular display, including red, as well as exceedingly rare blue and purple aurorae.
This time-lapse movie was made from 239 individual photos, taken between 6:55 and 7:32 pm, local time, in Legal, Alberta, Canada. It is sped up by a factor of approximately 10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7sE5c9n-vA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7sE5c9n-vA
Northern Lights as seen from East Martin Michigan on October 24 2011http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIitTNFJ-vI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIitTNFJ-vI
Quote
Oct. 25th, 2011 - Geomagnetic Storm - Seabeck, WA
The timelapse was create by taking forty-eight 30 second exposures. I threw them in Adobe After Effects CS5.5 as a Jpeg sequence. Then used pixel blending and Twixtor to slow the 1.17 second timelapse to 10% speed and through frame interpolation digitally synthesize the missing frames. This is how much action the auroras displayed in a span of 24 minutes. It was shot around 1:30am, towards the tale end of the solar storm from Seabeck, Washington.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fptt0Eei-xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fptt0Eei-xo
no..it's thank you BTS..aren't they just amazing...
we had some wierd lights last night but not aurora's when i was out
thanks again
:D
Yes, those shots are amazing all of them. I hope the one from Space Weather
makes it to you tube, so we can embed. That one is the most colorful of all.
Hopefully in the coming days there will be more!
:)
Cheers!
Rare purple and gold one...
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Aurora/Thalken1.jpg)
© Brian Thalken, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, USA - Dec. 14, 2006
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Aurora/Holm2.jpg)
© Fredrik Holm, Reykjavik, Iceland - Dec. 13, 2006
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Aurora/Richard1.jpg)
© Stan Richard, Saylorville Lake north of Des Moines, IA - Dec. 14, 2006
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Aurora/Johnskas2.jpg)
© Ragnar Johnskas, Ringsaker, NORWAY. - Dec. 15, 2006
(http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/images/01oct02/page5/jussila1.jpg)
Jouni Jussila, Oulu, Finland
Lots of them at the NASA Aurora Galleries (http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery.html)
Pegasus Favorites
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/02files/Aurora_Borealis_01.html
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/02files/Aurora_Borealis_02.html
Aurora with Moon
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_files/04images/Norway/hugo_aurora.jpg)
Collection of the best...
(http://personal.inet.fi/koti/tom.eklund/aurora_tiedostot/logo3.jpg) (http://personal.inet.fi/koti/tom.eklund/aurora.html)
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/tom.eklund/aurora.html
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Aurora/Mammana1.gif)
Photo 1 - © Dennis Mammana
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Aurora/1698pu.jpg)
by Dick Hutchinson ©
I bet THIS CME would make pretty Auroras :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8SG59R65e8
:o 8)