2012-03-15

Aurorae observed

Displays of the northern lights have been reported across the UK. Here in Ireland a blanket of our ubiquetous cloud has covered the country spoiling the view. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has seen them tonight. Below is a plot of my magnetometer data and it shows the big magnetic displacements from about 15:00UT onwards signifying a probanle auroral display.

Dave Gradwell

4 comments:

  1. David, there has been some activity visible from North Mayo these past couple of nights. Here is a photo I took at approx 11:50pm on the 17th
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/55738210@N05/6846320064/
    I also captured another more unusual image on the 19th at approx 3:15am. A short horizontal green band visible in the Northwest for approx 15min. The Kp index was approx 2 with low activity forecast, yet this was visible from Mayo?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brian,
      Paddy's Day image
      You've got a great image there. I've checked my magnetometer and there was a small wobble of activity around that time (you can see it near 00:00 on the second graph above). Not normally enough to cause activity but a negative polarity, high speed solar wind was buffeting us at the time.
      This morning's image (19th)
      Even stranger as my magnetometer showed nothing and most similar mags at our latitude only showed a small "kink" which jumped the local K index to 3 to 4 for a very short while.
      Current conditions seem to be causing short sporadic geomagnetic episodes which you've been lucky to capture each time. Cross referencing my star maps you seem to be facing NNW (so direction is ok)? Also whats behind that hill, just in case someone was having a lazer show:)

      Great images keep em coming

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  2. Also seen from Charlestown in Mayo
    http://m1231.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/Ronan_Newman/IMG_3191.jpg.html?o=15&newest=1

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  3. Thanks Ronan. Does seem to be the case that around the equinox auroral activity increases, without great geomagnetic activity.

    Dave Gradwell

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