April 20, 2020

Aurora Last Night

Some lucky folks in our region viewed an impressive aurora last night and perhaps a hint of it might be visible tomorrow morning.

Here is a picture provided  by Greg Johnson of Skunk Bay Weather of the aurora at 3:39 AM, looking northward from Kitsap towards Whidbey Island:


Greg also provided a magnificent video of Monday mornings event:


This aurora was associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME) event several days ago, which resulted in a relatively high planetary K index (about five) last night (see plot below).


The simulated distribution of the aurora provided by the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, shows the core of the event over southern/central Canada.



 What about tonight?

It will certainly be clear enough, but as shown in the figure above, the K-index has dropped considerably.  The latest Space Center forecast is for a decline  of Kp to 3 tonight...which might not lead to a decent aurora show.  Might check their webpage tonight for an update. 


Viewing a good aurora is a life-changing experience.





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2 comments:

  1. ForestscoutApril 20, 2020 at 6:38 PM

    I was out tent camping in my back yard last night, but unfortunately there's a bunch of tall trees to the north, so I didn't see anything. However, I did notice that the stars were gorgeous and very bright last night. The Milky Way was amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DianaApril 20, 2020 at 10:02 PM

    Sigh...thank you for posting the mesmerizing video...a wonderful change of pace.

    ReplyDelete

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