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Here are the results from the robotic digital
aurora cam for the first 2 hours of shooting on October 25th.
The Kp Index reached 8 that night as a CME impact occurred from
a recent solar flare. For much of the northern USA, the conditions
were perfect as aurora was reported as far south as it ever can
be, Arkansas and Georgia. (And of course me, in Arizona). But
the weather here was terrible. Giant storms were on the way and
it was clouding up fast. It was totally hopeless at sunset, however
an hour later small holes appeared to the north. I quickly set
up the aurora cam, not used for this purpose since 2006! This
set of exposures show the advancing clouds, but the first frame
shows low on the horizon a deep red glow. The remaining images
show a deep green sky in a very diffuse auroral glow never seen
normally from here. Then the clouds rolled in, and it started
to rain on the camera - And I rescued it before any damage occurred.
Whew, that was a close call.
As you can see
here, the yellow bright glows in the sky are the moving clouds.
Look behind them to see the aurora. Solar maximum is not until
2013, so we still have time for half a dozen more auroral events
here in the coming years.
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