Maybe the best shot from yesterday. Later that night it got much darker, the magenta shifted to a red and a slight tint of greenish yellow could be seen. What a magnificent spectacle nature gave us here!
You'll see lots of Kp index number reports during this solar storm. That's a scale from zero to nine that combines global observations of disturbance K. You'll also see G-scale data from one to five.
"During this past weekend's strong G3-class geomagnetic storm, low-latitude #auroras spread as far south as #Texas and #Arizona. Upon further review, most of those lights were not auroras at all. Everything #red in this montage is an 'SAR arc'.
"'On Nov. 5th, the ring current was pumped up by hours of strong geomagnetic storming, with energy dissipating into these SAR arcs,' says Jeff Baumgardner of Boston University's Center for Space Physics. 'It was a global event. Our cameras registered #SAR arc activity from #Italy to #NewZealand.'
"Recent research has linked SAR arcs to another phenomenon that is not an aurora: #STEVE. The #mauve ribbon in the sky was not originally thought to have anything to do with Earth's ring current. Yet in 2015, observers in New Zealand caught a bright red SAR arc transforming itself into STEVE like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
"On Nov. 5th, Mark Savage may have witnessed the same metamorphosis over Northumberland, #UK:
"Visible to the naked eye, STEVE materialized from an overhanging red arc. 'The entire process took about 10 minutes,' says Savage. This timescale roughly matches that of another SAR-to-STEVE transition observed over Canada in April 2022. Clearly, the two phenomena are linked, but researchers aren't sure how.
"'The connection is still elusive,' says Carlos Martinis, a leading researcher in the field at Boston University. 'Sometimes SAR arcs evolve into STEVE--but not always. This is a very active field of research, involving citizen scientists and researchers.'
"Did you see an SAR arc on Nov. 5th? Submit your pictures to Spaceweather.com."
A CME MIGHT HIT EARTH THIS WEEKEND: NOAA and NASA models agree that a full-halo CME is likely to hit Earth's magnetic field this weekend, probably during the late hours of Nov. 5th. The impact could produce a G2-class (Moderate) geomagnetic storm with auroras in northern-tier US states. Details and updates @ Spaceweather.com #solar#cme#aurora#geomagneticstorm
Still no indications of a direct CME hit here on east coast U.S. It's after 10 est.
I'm going to bed.
If anyone is planning to stay awake a bit and wait it out NOAA updates its aurora forecast page every 30 minutes.
(remember to hit refresh for latest)
A few days back, the Sun unleashed an Earth directed flare. It took a few days to arrive, but it finally came in the early hours of this morning.
Aurora have lit up the world since!
Astrophotographers have captured them in Victoria, Tasmania. The below Gorgeous photo by AsV member Eddie Pang was captured using iPhone 14 Pro of this morning’s aurora captured at the Astro. Society of Victoria's Leon Mow dark sky site north of Heathcote (VIC)
In the north, they are reporting aurora as far south as Kansas!