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Jonina Oskarsdottir
Jonina Oskarsdottir captured this picture of the northern lights over Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland. "No words can describe the experience of the northern lights tonight," Oskarsdottir told SpaceWeather.com. She used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera to take the shot, with a Canon 14mm f/2.8L USM II lens set for ISO 1600 ... and a 1-second exposure.
The solar storm that sparked so much debate this week got its second wind overnight, rewarding aurora aficionados from the Arctic to the Lower 48 to Australia.
Jonathan Icasas
Jonathan Icasas snapped this picture of the northern lights at Beaver Lake Park in Redmond, Wash., at about 12:50 a.m. March 9, and posted it via Instagram. Icasas used a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with a Canon 24-105L lens. Icasas recalls that his settings were roughly f/5.6 for one minute of exposure in bulb mode at ISO 500 ("I think"). For more of Icasas' work, check out JIcasasPhotography.com.
We're almost getting used to great views of the northern lights from places like Iceland (see above), Scandinavia and Russia — but last night's lights were visible from the top tier of the United States as well.
"Simply the most spectacular sighting ever, for me," a skywatcher from Pierz, Minn., wrote in a note to the Auroral Activity Observation Network. "While the color was only green, I witnessed curtains and rays, with much shifting. Most incredible were the pulsations, about two per second, that extended to zenith. ... Simply magical."
Other sightings have come in from Washington state, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Someone ever reported seeing a "very diffuse greenish glow" in the skies over Wyoming. "Would not have known that it was aurora if I wasn't paying attention to the current solar activity," the anonymous observer wrote.
Will tonight provide another southerly show? It's hard to predict, but the sunspot region that sent the big outburst our way, known as AR1429, appears to be growing and is sending out fresh blasts. Late Thursday, AR1429 shot out an M6.3-class flare, sending another coronal mass ejection toward Earth. That CME is expected to arrive early Sunday morning, "adding to the geomagnetic unrest already under way," SpaceWeather.com reported.
To figure out whether you have a chance of seeing the northern lights, keep an eye on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ovation Auroral Forecast map as well as the University of Alaska's Aurora Forecast website. If you're in the aurora zone, you can maximize your chances by getting far away from city lights, finding a place with good northern exposure and keeping watch between "magnetic midnight" and dawn. Tonight will be tricky, because the glare from the just-past-full moon might interfere — but as these pictures illustrate, the view might well be worth the trouble.
Here are a few more auroral highlights, including an unusual time-lapse video view of the southern lights from Tasmania. For still more, check in with SpaceWeather.com:
Aurora Australis over Tinderbox Vineyard - Tasmania, Australia - 9th March 2012 - Ian Stewart from Ian Stewart on Vimeo.
CSA / AuroraMAX
The full moon shines out amid the aurora in a picture taken by the AuroraMAX all-sky camera near Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories late March 8.
Aleksander Chernucho
An auroral display stretches over Russia's Kola Peninsula, around Mount Khibiny, in a picture taken by Aleksander Chernucho.
More auroral glories:
- Solar storm lights up northern skies
- Rocket flies into the northern lights
- Aurora extravaganza glows in space
- Planet looks back at the northern lights
- Auroras spark awe across the north
- Slideshow: The best of the northern lights
- Cosmic Log's auroral archive
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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They're so green. I didn't think they'd be green
Most of the ones I have seen are green, but twice, over Lake Tahoe, I have seen them a kind of deep burgandy. The reds didn't seem to shimmer and move like the greens, but they were still awesome!
The color of the aurora depends on the gas atoms and the energy of the collisions with the solar wind particles. Oxygen gives off green light and dark red. Red light is emitted from Nitrogen. Green light is also easier to see than red light, so even if red is present, it may be washed out if there is enough green light (which there usually is). Also, Green is right in the middle of the visual spectrum with red being longer in wavelength and blue shorter in wavelength, so green is slightly more visible at lower intensities than other colors to the human eye.
There is a huge difference between something that is reflecting light and something that is emitting light. With a reflection (e.g. when you look at a colored piece of paper or some object), the object is actually absorbing light of all wavelengths except for the wavelengths of the colors you are seeing.
With emission, the atoms are actually emitting light photons of the particular wavelengths of color that you are seeing. auroras are a light emission phenomena.
Rainbows are in the middle. A rainbow neither reflects nor emits light. They refract it. When you look at rainbow, you are actually seeing a profile of the sun's surface refracted by water molecules. As the light travels through the water and emerges the other side, the photons emerge at different angles depending on their wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the large the angle of refraction. That's why blue is on the inside of the rainbow (smaller radius) and red is on the outside (larger radius).
The reason the sky is blue gets even more complicated. Higher energy blue photons are more likely to be absorbed by gas molecules higher in the atmosphere and therefore represent high energies concentrated and re-emitted at higher altitudes still in the blue spectrum.
And if you're four year old can understand that, you should be saving for Harvard ;)
11,000 tonnes of extremely toxic fuel as well as radioactive material, vaporized (and turned to gas) into the atmosphere from a recently failed Russian Mars probe (Phobos Grunt) with Chinese Mars orbiter and bacteria containers.
11,000 tonnes? your numbers have to be off.
John Barker - Thanks for the info. Your posts were the most informative things I've read all night. Cheers!
Pardon, 11.000 metric tonnes.
They're breathtaking! I was disappointed that despite perfectly clear skies in our northern Wyoming location, the most exciting thing in the sky here last night was the full moon. (Which was a beauty, but nothing compared to these gorgeous auroras!) Glad I got to enjoy the photos, at least!
Sweet.
North Idaho, clear skies last night, and unfortunately so much light pollution (in our previously rural paradise), nothing seen. Supposed to be cloudy tonight but I'll try again! Heading for the open prairie this time. It's worth the effort, and such a rare thing to see. Last time I was able to witness the Lights was in Tacoma, Washington about 19 Septembers ago....I remember thinking they must be doing something really weird at the State Fair going on at the time to be making all that green light, then slowly it dawned on us what it was. Amazing.
Even if you don't see anything, try some time lapse photography (e.g. 1 minute exposures). Your camera make pickup something not visible to the human eye.
The Northern Lights were spectacular in Talkeetna, Alaska last night! Hoping for more tonight!
"They are ionized or excited by the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric particles being funneled down and accelerated along the Earth's magnetic field lines; excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision with another atom or molecule" (Wikipedia)
Then the earth has extra atoms, e.g. Nitrogen and Oxygen, which are capable to mix with other atoms.
I had the great fortune one time several years ago to live through the winter in Alaska. Going out at night to see the aurora borealis was one of my favorite things. They are gorgeous - and they make a sound, a kind of crackling sound. It is a stunning experience.
I didn't know they made a noise. But it doesn't surprise me. Would be awesome to hear some recordings. Does it sound like arcing? This is ionic activity.
Earthquakes make audible noises too, but I'm not sure how much of if is human infrastructure or the mother earth talking, but you don't hear much scientific investigation into that either.
I have only seen the Northren lights once. And belive it or not it was in Austin Texas back in the mid-80s'. I didn;t see the ribbons or sheets of color like the photos show. The night sky turned a gowing burgandy that lasted for hours. With this current storm I have not seen a thing so far here in north Texas near the Oklahoma border.
That's interesting. Did you have a way to confirm it was really an aurora?
The 'ribbons' only occur where the lines of force of the earths magnetic field are extremely coherent and at a nearly vertical angles with the earths surface. Normally that only happens close to the magnetic poles but can happen in other places with extreme solar activity and magnetic anomaly areas.
Is the thought of the sun capable of wrecking our electronics and nav GW junior's fault too????? Or could nature still have power even the Gubmint can't control?????
The amount of solar radiation that makes it to the ground is also affected by the quality of the atmosphere, so it is possible that pollution could have an affect. But, no, I wouldn't blame that on GW or any other one person.
These unearthly, beautiful photos bring to mind the Navajo prayer, "Walking in Beauty" from the Navajo Blessing Ceremony: " In beauty I walk,....With beauty before me I walk,.....With beauty behind me I walk,.......With beauty above me I walk,.....It has become beauty again." Simply spectacular.
Nothing last night from Jackson, WY. A few years ago I saw the Aurora for the first time from the top of Teton pass - although I didn't figure out what was happening until I got into Victor, ID (nearly wrecking my car several times in the attempt). I haven't seen it since and really hope this current cycle will bring them back. Beautiful beyond words. :)
More on the way.
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
August 10, 1975. I was spending the night at a friend's house in northern Ohio. I was 12 years old and will never forget seeing the Northern Lights for the first time. I have waited for a chance to let my son, Lukas see them as well. This should be the year.
Awesome light shows! If this was a 'glancing blow' (as described in previous stories), I would hate to see what a full head on flare would do.
It will be interesting to hear if any damage was caused by these flares so far. Some damage will be racked up as 'unknown' since it's hard to actually prove that solar activities caues some failures.
All these lights are simply ET turning on the headlights of his UFO.
Dave I thought it was god trying to tell people to vote sanatorium.
I saw a spectacular display in the mid 1980s while camping on Beaver Island in Northern Lake Michigan. There was very little light pollution (as you would expect out in the middle of a large lake), and the view was breathtaking. They appeared as a shimmering curtain of greens and reds nearly directly overhead.
There was another episode of Northern Lights - I don't remember exactly when, but I think it was sometime in the 1980s - and they were actually south of my position in Western Michigan. Even though there was considerable light pollution as I was in an urban area, they were clearly visible.
This latest episode wasn't visible from my perch here in Western Lower Michigan because of our nearly perpetual overcast, but I look forward to some awesome displays this summer and next when the viewing will be excellent. I'll take my Cessna up so I can get an unobstructed view.
i think i will be finishing a trip i started 35 years ago, mabey going to alaska with an old friend in aug ....i hear thats a great spot to see the lights.... enjoy
I have seen many of the Northern Lights when I lived in Northern Ontario, Canada, always beautiful they went from green to yellow to soft red, miss seeing them, am now living in SE texas