March 24th Aurora

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March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi all...

Well, I was very surprised to see any aurora tonight...I was boiling sap at the bush until 10:30pm local time and went outside of the sugar shack for a moment and the whole northern sky was glowing through the trees. My initial thought was approaching cloud but after a few minutes a friend texted me to ask if I had seen them. At this point is was a wide diffuse band without a lot of structure.

I was going home at this point anyway and when I to the observatory to retrieve my camera the display had changed to a very active, structured display that extended to the zenith...at times running overhead and down into the constellation Leo. The display pulsed in bands running parallel to the horizon the whole time.

Due to the large scale of the display, I put the 8mm, f3.5 lens on my 60D (Ha modded) and started to take a series of 5 sec exposures. I picked one out of the lot to show here...taken at 2:56UT Mar 24th (10:56 EDT Mar 23rd):
March 23 Aurora.jpg
March 23 Aurora.jpg (971.71 KiB) Viewed 607 times
I checked SpaceWeather when I came into the office to post this and this was the Auroral Oval posted on the site:
usa_thumb.jpg
usa_thumb.jpg (23.1 KiB) Viewed 607 times
Hands down the best display I've seen in a decade or more. I have witnessed these equinox auroras in the past while making syrup...its a good time of year ;)

I hope you had a chance to view these if you had clear skies.

Brian


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Ibbo »

Excellent.
I think I just about caught a smidgen of slightest hint of it here due to the LP and clouds but had the Shetland cliff cam to watch.


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Brian,
Absolutely beautiful!! I have been following SpaceWeatherLive all evening watching the KP level bounce from five to eight. Even though I am way too far south at 35 degrees north for all but the most intense solar storms I still ventured out and looked northward when it hit KP8. No aurora so thanks for the splendid view. I love the colors and the display shows considerable structure. I thought of you earlier and wondered if you were seeing it.

Thanks. Two thumbs up!! :hamster: :bow

James


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G4_Kp8_SWL_3-24-23.JPG
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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Averton »

Amazing shot Brian :)


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Petrus »

Wonderful show with vivid colors Brian, I was able to see them faintly in an urban city.


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

So glad you got to see something of the Aurora, Brian.

This was a G4 solar storm, which is close to the highest level (G5). The planetary 'K' index was 7.67, meaning it was visible at lower latitudes (in the north) provided skies were clear (not here!!).

Here are my magnetometer data covering the event:
20230324_G4_Storm.jpg
20230324_G4_Storm.jpg (119.35 KiB) Viewed 574 times
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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Montana »

Wow!!! amazing :hamster:

I got the alert but didn't think it was strong enough as it was only an amber alert, perhaps not :(

Alexandra


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by rigel123 »

I got the alert about the big storm and wondered if anyone had clear skies! I was driving in a deluge at the time just trying to see where road was!!


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks for the feedback everyone :bow

I was hoping more had a chance to witness them but at the mercy of cloud and time of day. I have several other images that I may post to go along with this one and if I can get an animation assembled I'll share it as well. I have to give thanks for the image being chosen as the SPOF too :bow

Stuart, would you be able to post your magnetometer data for the period of 03-04UT...this was when I was seeing the pulses? Wondering if the scale was spread over a shorter period what it could show.

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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MAURITS »

Congrats on SPOD Brian 👍


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Brian,
I put your aurora pic as the desktop background on my iMac! Beautiful!! 🥳 Congratulations on the SPOD!!

Stu,
Nice magnetometer data of the event! 👍🏻👍🏻

James


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

Hi Brian,

Here's the whole event from the UK in hi-res (1 second cadence)
20230324_G4_Storm_Hi-res.jpg
20230324_G4_Storm_Hi-res.jpg (145.21 KiB) Viewed 519 times
...and a section covering the specific time of relevance:
20230324_G4_Storm_Hi-res_03-04_Section.jpg
20230324_G4_Storm_Hi-res_03-04_Section.jpg (115.8 KiB) Viewed 519 times
Don't forget, I'm a few thousand miles to the east of you, so the 'match' with your observations actually won't be a match as the geomagnetic response at any given location will be different.

We can find an INTERMAGNET supported station closer to you and plot that, if it would be helpful to you.

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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by KMH »

Brain,

Beautiful picture - you should post a few more!
I've only seen one really good display in my life, probably 43 years ago, but it's still a very vivid memory.

Kevin


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by ffellah »

That is one stunning picture, Brian ! Congratulations on the very well deserved SPOD and lucky you to witness such a beautiful aurora.

Franco :bow :bow


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

Maurits, Kevin, and Franco...

Thanks for your comments...much appreciated :bow

I am taking the night off form sap boiling, so I will see if I can get some more of the aurora shots posted.

Stuart, if a better match to the time of my imaging is available form another source it would be great to compare the readings and activity close to that time.

James, glad you like the shot that much...how do you want to pay out the royalties :lol:

Brian


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Re: March 24th Aurora - Animation added

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi all...

I processed 23 photos of the aurora taken between 2:54 and 3:00 UT…all 5 second exposures with the Canon 60Da/8mm, f3.5 lens. I had to re-size them quite a bit to get the animation down to a reasonable size to post.

I think I started to take photos near the middle of the peak display...I had a few before this started but moved the camera and they do not match up with the others. These were some of the test shots to figure out the exposure which makes them harder to add in.

The video is available on my Flickr account:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281 ... ateposted/

Brian


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Some here saw and photographed the aurora from western North Carolina at 35 north latitude. It's rare this far south. I did go out last night on three occasions to look for it without success. I figured there might be a chance when it hit Kp8!

Here's a local news clip concerning it.


https://wlos.com/news/local/rare-northe ... netosphere
Last edited by DeepSolar64 on Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

It's too bad that you weren't able to view them as well, but nice to see some folks captured them.

Brian


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

For some reason the link video won't play from SolarChat on my computer but will when viewed directly from the news website. The article is still readable though.

Hey. It's playing!! :lol:


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by marktownley »

That's superrb Brian!


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Brian,
Your aurora animation is beautiful!

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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

What event on the Sun caused this solar storm? I know of no X-Class flare caused CME.


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

Hi Brian,
Excellent animation and congratulations on SPoD :D
The nearest operational magnetometer publishing on Intermagnet seems to be one at Fredericksburg. Here are the data throughout the 24th. It appears the max level of activity was between 03:00 and 04:00….bingo; bang in agreement with your timeline.

It’s the ‘Y’ chart.
DE2163C1-BE98-4269-8F02-A01DA8AE9E2F.png
DE2163C1-BE98-4269-8F02-A01DA8AE9E2F.png (365.49 KiB) Viewed 429 times
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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:49 am What event on the Sun caused this solar storm? I know of no X-Class flare caused CME.
Hi James,
The key wind characteristic of relevance here is its magnetic orientation, Bz. If you go to Spaceweather.com and click on the DSCOVR data link you will see that Bz turned south for an extended period 23rd-24th. This meant that the magnetic field, carried by the solar wind, and Earth’s magnetic field could couple together very effectively, allowing the solar wind (protons and electrons) to penetrate our magnetic defences to a much larger degree than usual. The effect is particularly strong around the equinoxes. A perfect storm, you might say. No CME required.

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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

3988A372-0B7A-48FB-9AA0-2DD4885DCC1F.png
3988A372-0B7A-48FB-9AA0-2DD4885DCC1F.png (509.44 KiB) Viewed 427 times
FYI here is a plot of solar wind characteristics from DSCOVR. Bz is the red line in the top chart. Below zero is south.

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Re: March 24th Aurora - Animation added

Post by Averton »

MapleRidge wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:03 am Hi all...

I processed 23 photos of the aurora taken between 2:54 and 3:00 UT…all 5 second exposures with the Canon 60Da/8mm, f3.5 lens. I had to re-size them quite a bit to get the animation down to a reasonable size to post.

I think I started to take photos near the middle of the peak display...I had a few before this started but moved the camera and they do not match up with the others. These were some of the test shots to figure out the exposure which makes them harder to add in.

The video is available on my Flickr account:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281 ... ateposted/

Brian
Wow, really great time lapse Brian. The colours are beautiful!


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Averton »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:49 am What event on the Sun caused this solar storm? I know of no X-Class flare caused CME.
A large coronal hole has moved across the Sun this week to the point that it is facing Earth.
https://www.livescience.com/enormous-ho ... ras-friday
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronal ... rth-2023-3


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

Mark and Clare & Peter...

Thanks for your comments on the image and animation :bow

Stuart, thanks for pulling the additional data together too. It was a relatively short lived show form what I could tell visually...and my photos only covered 6 minutes of it (seemed much longer). The diffuse glow was active for at least a half hour before...maybe longer but I wasn't out looking.

I knew there was a coronal hole, but had no idea it was going to trigger an event like this and since there hadn't been a flare/CME I figured the coronal hole was the source (plus close to the equinox).

Brian


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

An amazing capture Brian

Thanks for sharing

Terry


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

The solar wind from the coronal hole hadn’t arrived at the time of the event. It is due today (25th).

Stu.


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by DeepSolar64 »

The coronal hole was certainly positioned right to get us on March 22. If the 24th event was not caused by the coronal hole then what caused it?
When I get a chance I'll have to research it.


SDOAIA191_1K_3-22-23.JPG
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SDOAIA193_1K_3-23-23.JPG
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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

I thought this hole had been active for many days, though closer to the SE limb than its current position.

Brian
Last edited by MapleRidge on Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.


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Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
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Planetary Work - SBIG CFW10, ASI462MM

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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by cte »

That is fantastic ! The last aurora visible from northern italy (I am at 45 north) was in december 1989 close to the solar maximum. I was just a child at that time, but I remember many pictures of the red sky before dawn. Our latitude is too low to get the green ribbons, but it was definitely possible to observe tge red glow


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by KMH »

Great animation, Brian!
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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by Carbon60 »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 3:45 pm The coronal hole was certainly positioned right to get us on March 22. If the 24th event was not caused by the coronal hole then what caused it?
When I get a chance I'll have to research it.



SDOAIA191_1K_3-22-23.JPG

SDOAIA193_1K_3-23-23.JPG
Hi James,
Possibly an unseen close encounter with a CME according to Spaceweather.com There’s quite a lot of uncertainty about this.

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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by nicspenceryork »

Wow Brian, that's magical!
Nic


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Re: March 24th Aurora

Post by MapleRidge »

Thanks Nic :bow

Good displays that this one were long overdue ;)

Brian


Brian Colville

Maple Ridge Observatory
Cambray, ON Canada

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
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Deep Sky Work - ASI294MM Pro+EFW 7x36/Canon 60D (Ha mod), ONAG
Planetary Work - SBIG CFW10, ASI462MM

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WL, G-Band & CaK Setup: Lunt Wedge & Lunt B1800CaK, Baader K-Line and Altair 2nm G-Band filter
ASI1600MM, ASI432MM, ASI294MM Pro, ASI174MM, ASI462MM
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