- Vivid auroral displays were triggered by a cloud of high
energy particles from the Sun that collided with planet Earth's magnetosphere
yesterday, October 29, at about 06:30 Universal Time.
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- The collision was anticipated, following an intense solar
flare and coronal mass ejection detected on October 28, and many anxious
sky watchers were rewarded with an enjoyable light show. While aurorae
don't normally haunt skies in the southern United States, they were reported
from locations in Missouri, Texas, New Mexico, and California in the early
morning hours. Near Yampa, Colorado astronomer
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- Jimmy Westlake also spent early yesterday morning enjoying
the stormy space weather. He was impressed by this colorful apparition
of the northern lights -- produced by excited oxygen and nitrogen atoms
interacting with energetic electrons at altitudes of 100 kilometers or
more. Brighter stars shine through the extreme high-altitude glow which
shows much lower clouds and the distant horizon in silhouette.
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- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0310/aurora031029b_westlake_c1.jpg
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