Solar storm going on

[Rich Engelhardt]

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/09/1186525577/northern-lights-aurora-borealis-2023

Enjoy!

I saw them once - - spooky.

[Jerry Bruette]

I don't consider it spooky at all but beautiful. I can remember waking my kids up from a dead sleep one time to see the northern lights. My daughter wasn't real happy at first but I think she understood that you don't get to see something that spectacular every day.

If the weather is forecast to be clear on Wednesday and Thursday I'll be up looking for the show.

[jared herbert]

This is a picture taken last winter on the north shore of Lake Superior. The best display of the lights I have ever seen or likely to ever see. The cool thing about this pic is the Big Dipper that is plainly visible

[Cameron Wood]

Among the big-picture things to worry about, this is what keeps me up at night- the possibility a big solar event aimed just at earth could crash the electric grid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

Congressional hearing were held in the 70s IIRC after power generators brought up the issue. Congress agreed and said the power generators should take measures at a cost of (at the time) $1B+. They conferred and said "oh, actually it's not really a problem". A core element was that hundreds of giant transformers at power substations could be fried, requiring them to be sent back to Korea for rebuild with a potential turnaround time of ten years, while back up generator capacity would only last for weeks.

Steps have been taken since, but the system is so much more reliant on satellites and electronics now that the risk remains high.

[Patty Hann]

This is a picture taken last winter on the north shore of Lake Superior. The best display of the lights I have ever seen or likely to ever see. The cool thing about this pic is the Big Dipper that is plainly visible

That is so beautiful.
I didn't think aurora colors other than green could be seen that far south. ( I saw a green shimmery "curtain" aurora 'way outside of Chicago around late autumn in 1974.)
See attached... is that the cup of the Big Dipper (circled in red)?
504120

[jared herbert]

That picture was taken March 23, 2023. You are right about the dipper cup. It was a perfect night for viewing. Perfectly clear and dry air and no moon and about 20 degrees. I spent about 2 hours watching the display from 9:30-11:30. I think it went on most of the night. At times the whole sky with the exception of the south 1/4 was lit up with flashing and pulsating red, green, white colors. I believe it was a onice in a lifetime display for this area, 40 miles north east of Duluth along the shore of Lake Superior

[Patty Hann]

That picture was taken March 23, 2023. You are right about the dipper cup. It was a perfect night for viewing. Perfectly clear and dry air and no moon and about 20 degrees. I spent about 2 hours watching the display from 9:30-11:30. I think it went on most of the night. At times the whole sky with the exception of the south 1/4 was lit up with flashing and pulsating red, green, white colors. I believe it was a onice in a lifetime display for this area, 40 miles north east of Duluth along the shore of Lake Superior

I am soooo envious.... not just of you but of anyone who can see multi colored aurorae.
I'm grateful that I was able to see even the green one, because that is (so far) the only aurora I have ever seen.
Some day I hope to travel far enough north (or south) to see aurorae with reds and golds as well as green.

A woman at my church was born in Fairbanks and moved to the lower US in her teens.
I asked her about the aurorae in the dead of winter (February) and she said the entire sky would be lit up while they rode to school.

[Dave Zellers]

I live in Southeastern Massachusetts and back in the late 70's or early 80's, they reached down this far. Everyone was calling everyone. "Get outside right now!" It was seriously cool.

[Patty Hann]

I live in Southeastern Massachusetts and back in the late 70's or early 80's, they reached down this far. Everyone was calling everyone. "Get outside right now!" It was seriously cool.

HAHA...that was similar to my experience. The group of us (all in our 20s) were packed into two cars about 2 hours west of Chicago.
It was about 11PM and were returning from some holiday get together (the details are now vague)
I was in the back passenger-side seat leaning my head tiredly against the window.

I happened to look up and saw this green shimmery curtain almost right above us.
I started shouting "Stop the car! Stop the car!" Someone sitting behind the driver started shouting the same thing at the same time.
I don't know if he knew what we were seeing but I did.

And it was good thing we were on a lightly traveled two lane [state] road.
The driver stopped (the other car did too) and we all piled out.
I think maybe half of us knew what that shimmery curtain was. I know I was mesmerized, slack-jawed with awe.

[Dave Zellers]

Cool. Perfect metaphor. Definitely a "Stop The Car!" moment. :) I love it.

Haven't seen anything like it since, despite many, "maybe tonight" alerts.