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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.
Brian Emfinger / www.realclearwx.com
Photographer Brian Emfinger captured this view of the northern lights from a spot near Ozark, Ark.
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!"
Randy Halverson / Dakotalapse.com
Photographer Randy Halverson saw a beautiful green and red aurora over Wisconsin.
Photographer Randy Halverson captured a whole string of auroral pictures from a vantage point west of Madison, Wis., with his 16-year-old son, River. Father and son were amazed to see how bright the lights were. "At one point they were so bright they lit up the ground," Randy wrote.
Richard Miller
Richard Miller was visiting Washington Court House, Ohio, when he snapped this picture of the reddish aurora.
Richard Miller, a resident of London, was visiting Washington Court House, Ohio, when he snapped a picture of the red glow over the neighborhood. "Seeing the Aurora Borealis on my family visit to Ohio made the trip one to remember," Miller told me in an email. "As an amateur astronomer, I've never seen anything like it before."
David DelaGardelle / maddwarfworkshop.com
David DelaGardelle snapped this picture of the northern lights as he was heading home from his Indiana workshop.
David DelaGardelle, who's a full-time blacksmith/swordmaker/artisan in Indiana, was driving home from his Mad Dwarf Workshop when he saw the spectacle. He said he was awestruck by the sight of "blood-red northern lights aflame in the night sky."
Jeff Berkes
Pennsylvania photographer Jeff Berkes captured a quick image of the auroral glow.
Jeff Berkes, a Pennsylvania photographer who shared a photo of the Orionid meteor shower with us earlier today, also sent in a quick snapshot of the northern lights. "They were only out for a few minutes, and I was only able to get off five shots, two of which were blurry from the car shaking," he wrote in an email.
The cause of the show was a coronal mass ejection from the sun that hit Earth's magnetosphere at about 2 p.m. ET, SpaceWeather.com reported.
The impact caused a strong compression in the magnetic field, allowing electrically charged particles from the solar wind to penetrate down to geosynchronous orbit (22,000 miles or 35,000 kilometers in altitude). That means Earth-orbiting satellites could have been exposed to the solar storm, analysts said.
Solar activity is on the upswing toward an expected peak of the sun's 11-year cycle in 2013, and the past few months have been marked by strong auroral activity. Here's a picture of an aurora as seen from the International Space Station on Sept. 29 as it flew over the midwestern United States.
Consult NASA's Earth Observatory website to get your bearings, and watch this QuickTime video for a moving experience of the space station's flyover:
NASA
This greenish auroral display was seen from the International Space Station on Sept. 29 as the orbital outpost was passing over the American Midwest. The city lights of Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago and St. Louis are visible below.
All these pictures may be pretty, but stronger solar storms can have a significant downside: They could disrupt satellite communication as well as power grids. There were no immediate indications that tonight's bout of space weather caused significant problems.
More auroral glories:
- Spaceships bask in aurora's glow
- Red sky at night, astronaut's delight
- Fly over the southern lights
- Beautiful blasts from solar storms
- Southern lights are sweeter in space
- Month in Space: Still more beautiful blasts
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Dear Hilarity & Cormic and any other non-believers just watch this video.
Too much light pollution from city lights to be able to see the Northern Lights anywhere near Chicago
when they come you will be able to see them, even during the day time they are visible, you could just go out towards lake michigan and see them for sure from where you are, usually you have to look straight north to see them
Dear Hilarity & Cormac and any other non-believers.
Just watch this video.
I don't attend church or follow any religion although being baptized and growing up catholic, but I will say that I do believe that GOD exists.
Why are you calling me a non-believer?
That hurts my feelings and it's not very Christian of you.
I'm also not seeing this video of which you speak. I'm sure it will change my entire belief system though, so I'm looking forward to it.
PROVE THAT GOD EXISTS
Yeah I have alot of friends that are Alaskans lol their not all Eskimos they have different tribes up there but yes the do believe that the Northern Lights is a spiritual place where they call dancing of the human spirits. I'm Native American and we have alot of respect for the earth and alot of spiritual beliefs surrounds the earth. Too bad others can't see how we see the world. This place would be such a better place if everyone did.
this is biblical, the end of us all it close at hand
You obviously have a IQ less than 80
right on magnifico
Wow! I clicked on to see how beautiful the world is when it's showing off. Then I scrolled down a lil too far & started reading the post. jeez. I find it hard to believe that in this day we live in, people have not yet discovered how to simply be happy.
My 2cents...
We are, the world is. Doesn't really matter how it all came to be, it just is.
Make a difference, S M I L E.
ps. Awesome pictures! Thanks
Just be thankful that the earth has a magnetic field and is in the temperate zone of the sun, if it wasn't, none of us would be here. This planet would be just another round, cratered dead rock circling the sun.
OMG D; ITS ZEH END OF THE WORLD, JESUS AND HEAVEN FALLING TO EARTH BLAH BLAH BLAH RANT RANT RANT D;
stfu... >.> enjoy the natural phenomena and go preach at a super market... this is science, take your fiction else where
being thankful is a great way to live life
Can't say I am impressed. Been a webbie since the BBS days before the popularity kicked in. Gotta say though that this is too much. Came to this site intrigued with the Aurora sky illuminations and find religious zealots. I'll be frank - looks to me like a there are many bored people out here or perhaps those who haven't yet moved out of Mom's basement. For those of you who like me are impressed and overwhelmed with these new sitings - awesome - absolutely awesome site. To the enjoyers - enjoy ------ to the zealots - can you give it a rest guys? Find a new hobby !
Stop quoting Bible verses in response to a natural phenomenon. It's beautiful and unexpected, but doesn't require Bible-thumping to explain. Enough, already.
It goes to show you just how polluted this world really is.. If it wasn't for oxygen there'd be no Northern Lights.. What a way to go.....
The northern lights are created by plasma ejected from the sun hitting the magnetic field of the earth. Oxygen has nothing to do with it.
starbuck, infact it has to do with Oxygen. The reds and the greens are emitted by Oxygen atoms and molecules in various layers of the atmosphere.
god is here.to say that he is not. is to say that you have not looked.we are small greedy little things that have no ability to judge.if you can tell me how many atoms make up this planet i will believe there is no god.
and by the way there is no such thing as infinity
OK the earth is made up of 9.0 x 10^49 atoms. Would you please stop believing in your fairy tales ?
Earth has a mass of 5.98 x 10^24 kg. Average mass of the atoms that make up earth is 40u. 40 u x (1.66 x 10^-27 kg) = 6.64 x 10^-26 kg
Now use the ratio of the mass of Earth and the average atomic mass on Earth to find the number of atoms:
(5.98 x 10^24 kg) / (6.64 x 10^-26 kg) = 9.01 x 10^49
Sorry about the lights, accidentally left my flashlight on.
I have never seen cities lighted up at night from space like that... Amazing... I bet our planet looks crazy at night from space
It's beautiful. Period. Whether you believe the beauty came from God or was a chemical accident is not really relevant here. It was awe inspiring, regardless of how it came to be! Those of you who were able to see it should count yourself lucky. I didn't see it, and am having to content myself with seeing the pictures. I saw the northern lights once, years ago, when I was in Alaska. It was incredible! I'd love to have the chance to see them in person again!
First of all, I'm saddened that I missed the Northern Lights in their glory and in the Glory of their Creator. Secondly, they are definitely non-partisan. You can't blame one president for them or credit another. All you can do is feel humbled and appreciate the place you have in the universe. A small place I might add. By the way, do solar flares and storms that produce the northern lights ever impact our weather? Make our planet warmer or cooler? Just asking. Perhaps the increase in solar activity has been impacting our climate along with everything else.
the northern lights arent created by someone, they are a result of solar winds hitting out atmoshpere.
I live in Central Michigan, in the woods. At 9:30 to 9:45 pm ET there was red glowing clouds floating over my house. I am sorry, but that was not northern lights. I have never seen anything like this. There was no red on either side of the clouds, there were other clouds that were not red. What I saw was the cloud itself glowing and moving. If you ask me, we are being told a line of BS. I have no idea what it was. Maybe it is effects from the Japan nuclear disaster. Not sure, but I am sure this was not the northern lights. I think judgement day grows near...
HA, more proof, you should have taken a pic. There are pics of the same thing at Denver International Airport on thanksgiving last year(2010) and also the pheonix lights incident. They are there, EVERY ancient culture in the world says so. Even the bible. Think about the firery chariot descending from the sky with a thunderous roar, wheels turning nside wheels, and four faces, sound like anything we have these days?
Evolution has been proven a billion times in a billion ways. Science has explained basically everything. To think in 4 billion years a race so pathetically stupid as humans could evolve is not a big stretch. Proof of human stupidity is right in the way we are living, and your sheer inability to grasp the number 1 billion whether it is referring to population or years. Read your bible a little closer, even the vatican admits it, what you people think is god is just a human like race who are millions of years beyond our own evolution. And all you stupid people are going to call ma crazy, but the proof that what I say is the truth is all over the world drwn on cave walls, written in ancient documents and buildings that todays greatest engineers admit they cant build even with the biggest machines we have today. People need to forget religion and embrace nature before its too late.
Isaiah 24 - KJV - Pole Shift?!
20. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Kira. The Native Americans didn't have a better perspective than any other people or cultures. This is an alturistic BS trip that the liberal school system teaches everyone that everybody had it totally together until the Europeans ruined it all. It is BS as the tribes murdered each other all the time just like the african tribes do now and the arabs. on and on. Everyone had their beliefs and stuff. Why the Europeans advanced faster is a mystery but a fact, but doesn't make us the bad guys all the time. Read up.
Randy from Wisconsin named his son "RIVER"? are you kidding me?
HAARP
God does not. He Is. The Bible only scratches the surface of All That Is. Only in this world do we believe in a tiny space and a tiny time and some would like to put God in this world of duality but Oneness is all that is. Northern lights are beautiful like a sunset. Illusions all. Time and space cannot contain Us who are created by God. Does a physicist need to spell it out? We exist only in God's eternal Mind. Love your Father and forgive your neighbor. He is yourself. If your Jesus died try mine. He wrote A Course in Miracles.
Evidence for God please ? Has your evidence been peer review ? Can you make falsifiable predictions based on your hypothesis ? Or is it just a mental delusion ?