Aurora Pictures: Rare Northern Lights Seen in U.S. South

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Aurora Pictures: Rare Northern Lights Seen in U.S. South




All-Sky Auroras

Photograph courtesy Shawn Malone

If the devil went down to Georgia this week, he must have traded in his fiddle for blood-red auroras.

A cloud of charged particles from the sun slammed into Earth Monday, setting off an intense geomagnetic storm that spawned northern lights across the U.S.—even in the Deep South. Sky shows were reported in more than half the 50 states, including Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas, according to Spaceweather.com.

Seen in the picture above, the auroral display in Michigan featured the familiar green curtains of light tinged with deep red. According to photographer Shawn Malone, the auroras filled the sky in all directions, even toward the south, offering the best light show he's seen since 2004.

Farther south, the northern lights more often appeared as rare, all-red auroras.

(Related pictures: "Multicolored Auroras Sparked by Double Sun Blast" [August 2011].)

—by National Geographic News staff

Published October 25, 2011

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/pictures/111025-northern-lights-aurora-borealis-united-states-south/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ng%2FNews%2FNews_Main+%28National+Geographic+News+-+Main%29

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Rare Red Aurora

Photograph by Jay Malone, My Shot

The northern lights create as a ruby-red haze in the night sky over Arkansas late Monday.

Auroras are created when charged solar particles collide with molecules in Earth's atmosphere, infusing the molecules with extra energy that then gets emitted as light.

Familiar green auroras appear lower in the atmosphere, around 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. The light is actually a mix of colors, but the human eye is most attuned to the green part of the spectrum, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Sometimes, however, an influx of slower moving, less energetic particles can make auroras appear higher in the atmosphere, around 185 to 310 miles (300 to 500 kilometers). At these altitudes, the light displays are pure red.

(Also see "Aurora Pictures: 'Severe' Sun Storm Brightens Skies.")

Published October 25, 2011

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Lights Over Kansas

Photograph courtesy Jim Hammer

The star-spangled sky over Kansas is interrupted by a rare auroral glow in a fisheye picture taken Monday night.

The northern lights weren't visible to the naked eye, according to photographer Jim Hammer. But the sky show came alive in long-exposure pictures, like this one snapped about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Wichita (map).

(Watch a time-lapse video of auroras seen from an airplane.)

Published October 25, 2011

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Saturated Skies

Photograph courtesy Shawn Malone

The northern lights seem to create a big red spot amid a sky full of green auroras in a picture taken very early Tuesday from Marquette, Michigan (map).

The sun has been ramping up its activity over the past year, heading toward the next maximum in its roughly 11-year cycle.

Eruptions from the solar surface have been linked to coronal mass ejections (CME), huge clouds of particles that can come hurtling from the sun's upper atmosphere in any direction. Monday's auroral display was most likely caused by a CME on Saturday that was aimed at Earth.

More frequent CMEs have some experts worried about the risks sun storms pose to satellites and the power grid-but often the particles' most noticeable effects on Earth are brilliant auroras.

Published October 25, 2011

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Sweet Home Alabama

Photograph courtesy Jonathan Stone

A rare red glow hangs over Alabama in a picture of auroras taken Monday night from Baileyton (map).

Alerts of the incoming CME had many photographers racing outside Monday night to capture the show—even in places where auroras are very rare. People farther north reported seeing especially dazzling displays, while those in the south were amazed to see the lights for the first time in years.

"The auroras only [lasted] a few minutes. But hey it was awesome!" veteran astrophotographer Jeff Berkes, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, said in an email to Space.com.

"Haven't seen them here since September 2001."

(Related: "Solar Flare Sparks Biggest Eruption Ever Seen on Sun.")

Published October 25, 2011

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Superior Sky Show

Photograph courtesy Shawn Malone

Hints of red peek through the bright green auroras seen over Lake Superior in a picture taken from Marquette, Michigan, early Tuesday.

Treated to a similar view over the lake from nearby Munising Bay (map), Tom Dolaskie IV told Space.com that the aurora was "hands down the most amazing northern lights display that I have ever witnessed.

"Frankly, [it was] a setting that a photograph simply cannot capture. My friends and I were lucky to have witnessed it."

Also see "Aurora Pictures: Deep-Sky Lights Revealed" >>

Published October 25, 2011

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Northern Lights Travel South: Aurora Borealis Seen In Over 20 States (PHOTOS)

The aurora borealis, a geomagnetic phenomenon that's also known as the northern lights, is something we usually think of as occurring in, well, the north: Greenland, Iceland, Alaska and areas of northern Canada are famous for dazzling displays of red, green and orange lights, especially in the winter months.

But thanks to a Coronal Mass Ejection -- a burst of solar wind -- that resulted in a moderate-level geomagnetic storm, much of the United States was treated to an unusual and stunning light show on Monday evening.

According to the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center, clear skies across much of the nation as well as with the solar storm's arrival time (when it was getting dark in many states) made for a great display of northern lights.

CNN reports that in the United States, the northern lights are usually seen no farther south than Boston, Minneapolis or Seattle. But according SpaceWeather.com, the aurora was seen in more than half of the U.S., with people in places as far south as Alabama and as far west as California reporting seeing the phenomenon.

According to the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, an aurora is caused by the collision of electrons from space with atoms and molecules of gases (like oxygen and nitrogen) from the Earth's atmosphere. This collision results in a transfer of energy to the oxygen's electrons, and, as a result, quick bursts of light are emitted. A great number of these collisions create the light that's visible to the naked eye.

Randy Halverson, who earlier this year brought us this amazing time-lapse of the Milky Way, captured with his son, River, some pictures of the aurora. The two took the photos just west of Madison, Wisconsin. "At one point they were so bright, they lit up the ground, Randy wrote on his website, DakotaLapse.com.

LOOK: Check out some of the photos from the Halversons, and be sure to click over to DakotaLapse.com to see more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-20125354/unforgettable-northern-lights-display-recorded/

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cme.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/aurora-borealis-greenland-photo_n_934155.html

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/WhatsNew.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/25/us/solar-flares/

http://asahi-classroom.gi.alaska.edu/excite.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/15/milky-way-time-lapse_n_877525.html

http://dakotalapse.com/?p=581

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