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GREEN SKIES ON EARTH Sky watchers around the Arctic Circle have experienced three straight nights of auroras that some veteran observers say is "the strongest" they've ever seen. "Mother Earth gave us a massive display of lights," reports Johnny Henriksen, who photographed this outburst over Harstad, Norway.  The lights were not restricted to the Arctic Circle, however. Auroras spilled into the United States as far south as Virginia. Sightings were also made in the Dakotas, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Minnesota. Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert service received wake-up calls during the storm. Most displays of this magnitude are caused by CMEs, billion-ton clouds of gas from the sun. This event, however, was caused by a CIR (co-rotating interaction region). CIRs are boundary zones between slow- and fast-moving solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking auroras. A CIR hit Earth's magnetic field during the early hours of Oct. 7th, amplifying a storm already in progress. A solar wind stream arriving in the wake of the CIR has kept the storm going through Oct. 8th. More auroras are in the offing tonight, albeit not as strong. NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of minor geomagnetic storms on Oct. 9th as Earth slowly exits the stream of solar wind. . |
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