‘It was 3 hours of magic’: Spectacular auroras thrill stargazers across the world (and internet) as intense geomagnetic storm batters Earth (photos)
A geomagnetic storm supercharged Earth’s auroras, or the northern lights overnight on Thursday (Oct. 10), with aurora watchers in the U.S. and across the globe on hand to capture the stunning light-show. Not to be left out, Space.com’s own crack team of aurora hunters (the A-Team?) were also out in the field to catch some incredible images.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), the geomagnetic storm resulted from Earth being struck by an eruption of charged particles or “plasma” that burst from the sun, more specifically sunspot AR 3848 in the evening of Tuesday (Oct. 8).
The plasma eruption from the solar flare, an example of a “coronal mass ejection” or “CME,” traveled to Earth at speeds of 2.9 million mph (4.6 million kph). That’s about 2,000 times as fast as the top speed of a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter. Yet, even at these incredible speeds, the CME still took a few days to travel the 93 million miles (150 million km) between Earth and the sun.
When the CME struck Earth’s magnetosphere, the resultant geomagnetic storm reached G4 levels on the SWPC’s geomagnetic storm scale. This is the second highest grade on the scale, which considers both severity and potential impacts. NOAA stated on Thursday evening that the storms have the potential to reach extreme G5 levels.
Related: Severe solar storm could supercharge auroras across US, impact power grids, NOAA warns
While a common sight in Alaska and neighboring regions in the U.S. (as seen above) the G5 status of this geomagnetic storm ensured the Aurora Borealis was visible to many other Americans last night.
Space.com’s own Josh Dinner was on hand to capture colorful images of the aurora over Griffey Lake in Bloomington, Indiana, on Thursday night at 10:10 pm EDT (0310 GMT).
A small number of people began gathering along the levy walkway beside the Indiana reservoir shortly after sunset. There was a faint pink glow as the twilight slipped to darkness, and then suddenly, the sky erupted with a vivid pink and green dance above our heads,” Dinner explained. “It only lasted a minute or so, but it could be seen with the naked eye.
“I was absolutely mesmerized.”
