News: Solar Storm and Northern Lights

[Arcadia]

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4654172-who-could-see-the-northern-lights-amid-very-rare-geomagnetic-storm-watch/

"Geomagnetic storms are categorized by the SWPC on a 5-point scale. At the lowest end is G1, which is described as minor storms that can lead to aurora being visible in Maine and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A G5 storm, described as extreme, could send the northern lights as far south as Florida and southern Texas.

... As of Thursday afternoon, the SWPC has issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch, explaining that “the CMEs are anticipated to merge and arrive at Earth by late on May 10th or early on May 11th.”

“The aurora may become visible over much of the northern half of the country, and maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California,” the agency wrote.

We saw a G4 level geomagnetic storm watch issued in March, but the storming reached its peak during the daylight hours in the U.S., meaning most didn’t have the chance to see the aurora.

... As of Thursday afternoon, the SWPC’s aurora forecast for Friday shows Canada and Alaska will have the best chance of seeing the northern lights. In the continental U.S., those in the northern portions of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and almost all of North Dakota have the greatest likelihood of seeing the aurora.

Residents living in the southern portions of those states, as well as Oregon, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine may also get to see a glimpse of the aurora on their northern horizons.

The aurora forecast for Friday, May 10, 2024, as of Thursday, May 9, 2024. (NOAA SWPC)

While the SWPC doesn’t yet have a forecast for Saturday, the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks shows the aurora may be visible even further south, stretching into northern portions of Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey.

... While it can be difficult to tell when exactly the U.S. will have the chance to see the aurora borealis, NOAA does offer single-day and next-day forecasts for potential northern light viewing."

 

[Ausmumof3]

We saw it! Well Aurora Australis anyway! It has been a thing I’ve wanted to experience for so long and just lucky enough to wake up and see the alert on my phone. I had a look and I could see a faint pink/red glow - nowhere near as amazing as the pics but there - it showed up better on my phone with 3 second time delay. I thought it wasn’t spectacular enough to wake the kids but then changed my mind. Youngest saw it, oldest wouldn’t wake up, middle child woke up but it had faded by the time she came out - was still visible with time delay but not to the eye. 

[Ausmumof3]

[Melissa in Australia]

I was up but it was too cloudy to see anything

[Lawyer&Mom]

It’s clear today in Seattle and I’m excited to see what we can see tonight!

[gardenmom5]

54 minutes ago, Lawyer&Mom said:

It’s clear today in Seattle and I’m excited to see what we can see tonight!

Do you have a favorite place to go away from city lights?

[gardenmom5]

Here's a video explanation by Dr. Tamitha Skov.  It's up to eight CMEs

there were concerns expressed for her safety because she's wearing a red shirt.

[MEmama]

DS saw it in Dublin, I think it's his first time!

[Eos]

I'm flying across the country tonight and expect to see it. Northern lights are my favorite phenom! But I'm a tiny bit concerned about what it might do to airplane navigation...

[MEmama]

3 minutes ago, Eos said:

I'm flying across the country tonight and expect to see it. Northern lights are my favorite phenom! But I'm a tiny bit concerned about what it might do to airplane navigation...

I hope you do, and that you can get a photo out the plane window! 

[kbutton]

4 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

We saw it! Well Aurora Australis anyway! It has been a thing I’ve wanted to experience for so long and just lucky enough to wake up and see the alert on my phone. I had a look and I could see a faint pink/red glow - nowhere near as amazing as the pics but there - it showed up better on my phone with 3 second time delay. I thought it wasn’t spectacular enough to wake the kids but then changed my mind. Youngest saw it, oldest wouldn’t wake up, middle child woke up but it had faded by the time she came out - was still visible with time delay but not to the eye. 

I don’t think I knew you have a southern aurora. How cool! 

[Eos]

Over our house, you can see the chimney silhouetted against the green northern lights.

Edited May 11 by Eos

[Miss Tick]

We can see a pinkish coloring to the sky at our house currently.

[MEmama]

From our driveway—it’s spectacular!

I hope they show well here

 

[Eos]

2 minutes ago, MEmama said:

From our driveway—it’s spectacular!

I hope they show well here

 

WOW!!! Fantastic pictures!

Edited May 11 by Eos

[Ausmumof3]

Wow!!!

[Arcadia]

@MEmama beautiful. I showed my kids your photos since we are too far south to see anything. There would be northern lights tomorrow too. Those near the Oregon border might have a chance.

[Heartstrings]

We can see them all the way in Central Arkansas!  It’s mostly just a pink haze but I can see some blue shimmers.  

Edited May 11 by Heartstrings

[Matryoshka]

My brother took this with his much better phone camera. I took some too, but they're muddy in comparison! 

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, kbutton said:

I don’t think I knew you have a southern aurora. How cool! 

Yeah! I think it’s just that mostly where they’ve visible population density is low so not many people see it. It’s mostly NZ and Tassie that get a look

[freesia]

We have them here. Not as amazing as those of you further North, but still cool. Seeing them had been on my bucket list. 

[wathe]

From the end of my driveway, taken with cell phone camera:

[Ausmumof3]

Looks like it went to G5 ( admittedly I have very limited idea of what that means but people seem to be finding it impressive!) 

 

Seeing this is a homeschool forum anyone got any good links to help me turn this into a science lesson next week 🤣

[Scarlett]

From our backyard. In OK. 

[Ausmumof3]

One of my kids is flying soon. Should I be worried?

[fairfarmhand]

We saw it in middle Tennessee. 

[Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Seeing this is a homeschool forum anyone got any good links to help me turn this into a science lesson next week

AURORA TUTORIAL (NOAA)
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial#:~:text=The aurora is one manifestation of geomagnetic activity.,at the surface of Earth.

Illuminating the Northern Lights (KQED)

https://d43fweuh3sg51.cloudfront.net/media/media_files/115b_northernlights.pdf

[Heartstrings]

13 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

One of my kids is flying soon. Should I be worried?

Nah.  Should be fine, I saw several planes flying around in it.

[kbutton]

We’ve checked several times—nothing, even though some of you are south of where I live. The pictures shared are so cool! 

[Eos]

38 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:

Nah.  Should be fine, I saw several planes flying around in it.

I hope so, I'm waiting to board a cross-country flight.

[Matryoshka]

22 minutes ago, kbutton said:

We’ve checked several times—nothing, even though some of you are south of where I live. The pictures shared are so cool! 

Did you try pointing your phone camera at the northern sky? I couldn't see much with the naked eye; my brother suggested the phone trick.  I could see it on my phone display even without taking a pic.  

[prairiewindmomma]

[prairiewindmomma]

[Corraleno]

27 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

That is amazing and I’m so jealous! I think we’re in the same area and I’ve been checking every 10 minutes and haven’t seen anything 😩😢

[KSera]

Just now, Corraleno said:

That is amazing and I’m so jealous! I think we’re in the same area and I’ve been checking every 10 minutes and haven’t seen anything 😩😢

Did you try with your phone?

[Corraleno]

30 minutes ago, KSera said:

Did you try with your phone?

I have an ancient iPhone 6, lol, the sky is just a black rectangle in my phone. But I dragged DS out of bed and he got a shot where the sky looks pink, but it’s totally invisible to the naked eye. 

ETA: Top is DS's photo, bottom is from my camera and what it looks like in real life
 

Edited May 11 by Corraleno

[KidsHappen]

4 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

We saw it in middle Tennessee. 

Ditto. Two dds got pictures, one dd missed them tonight but will try again tomorrow, I haven't heard from the dd that lives out in the country (less light pollution) and then the dd that lives with us and me and my hubby saw a little after it had slowed down some. I am sure we will all try again tomorrow. For some reason you can see them better looking through you phone camera than with you plain eyes. 

[prairiewindmomma]

I had to get a bit out of town to dark sky. Ping me if you want to know where I went…there were lots of people who had the same idea as me and it was a fun atmosphere.

Corraleno, my backyard view in the city is about the same as yours, fwiw.

Edited May 11 by prairiewindmomma

[bookbard]

I'm so jealous! It's been raining for two weeks here, they think it might flood this weekend - no way we'll be able to see the sky (although I'm north of Sydney, so might not have seen much, but still!)

[kbutton]

7 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

Did you try pointing your phone camera at the northern sky? I couldn't see much with the naked eye; my brother suggested the phone trick.  I could see it on my phone display even without taking a pic.  

I might try tonight if it’s clear. We might have too much light pollution also. Our sky was still pretty bright.

[MEmama]

9 hours ago, Arcadia said:

@MEmama beautiful. I showed my kids your photos since we are too far south to see anything. There would be northern lights tomorrow too. Those near the Oregon border might have a chance.

My brother saw them in Clear Lake! My folks are travelling so idk about their county, but you have a chance for sure. Can you get to a beach or away from some of the lights? 

[MEmama]

After we came inside, I watched the colors in the sky change from my bed. So cool.

Our kitties were wild little beasts last night--anyone else? I'm not sure if it was because they could sense something, or because we committed the cardinal sin of "don't wake the babies" when we went outside and woke them up,

[Matryoshka]

8 minutes ago, kbutton said:

I might try tonight if it’s clear. We might have too much light pollution also. Our sky was still pretty bright.

I think it may also be coming in waves. The TV said to go out and look between 11-3am; my brother called me at 10:30 to go outside and that's when I (or more, my phone) could see it.  That's also at about the same time people were posting here. I went out twice more, at around 11:30 and 12:30, and nothing,  not even with my phone. 

[mom31257]

I’m at my best friend’s house south of Atlanta,  and we drove out on a dirt road away from lights and saw a lot of color changes. She is normally in bed super early but stayed up because I’m here, so she said it was perfect timing. 

[Faith-manor]

They were just gorgeous in our part of Michigan last night! We went up to the point on Lake Huron and stayed out for quite a while.

[scbusf]

Great pictures, everyone! I'm in SE VA and it was too cloudy here last night. Does anyone know if tonight is still a possibility?

[Ausmumof3]

We went for a drive tonight - some of these are 10s exposure so wasn’t quite that spectacular in real life but still stunning 

The fog came in just after 

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, MEmama said:

My brother saw them in Clear Lake! My folks are travelling so idk about their county, but you have a chance for sure. Can you get to a beach or away from some of the lights? 

We are about 153 miles south of Clear Lake. My husband is curious so we’ll see if any of our neighbors could see last night. 
@KidsHappen someone mentioned in a Reddit thread to set the camera to long exposure to be able to see the aurora well. So maybe long exposure is the key.
 

53 minutes ago, scbusf said:

Does anyone know if tonight is still a possibility?

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental tonight too 

[prairiewindmomma]

13 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

We are about 153 miles south of Clear Lake. My husband is curious so we’ll see if any of our neighbors could see last night. 
@KidsHappen someone mentioned in a Reddit thread to set the camera to long exposure to be able to see the aurora well. So maybe long exposure is the key.
 

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental tonight too 

Even just bumping up your ISO will help.  

[MEmama]

16 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

We are about 153 miles south of Clear Lake

Oh, I know, I just meant they were super visible not too far north. Anyway, I hope you get lucky seeing them tonight!