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E PA/NJ/DE Fall 2024 Obs/Discussion


Rtd208
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Space Weather geek here: that huge burst of aurora was due to an auroral "substorm" that often occurs, we will likely see more through the night. You can track here at the GOES magnetometer site the strength of the parallel component of the Earth's magnetic field. I will explain why that's important below this...

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/goes-magnetometer

Basically, what happens is the Earth's magnetosphere (more specifically it's magnetotail) gets stretched and then subsequently rubber bands back and releases the built up energy. When it rubber bands back, that produces the bursts of Aurora. They usually occur every 2-3 hours. On that website, you can time the substorms by looking at the large down spikes, that indicates the aurora is "charging up". Then when it spikes back up, that means it releases the energy in a beautiful aurora display. I would recommend changing the tab to 6 hours to get a close up view of what the magnetometer is measuring. All of this to say... You might have to wait another 2 hours or so for the bright views to come back! They come in waves and that's just the nature of these things. But it's cool, you can actually predict Aurora substorms and bright views.

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4 minutes ago, Newman said:

Space Weather geek here: that huge burst of aurora was due to an auroral "substorm" that often occurs, we will likely see more through the night. You can track here at the GOES magnetometer site the strength of the parallel component of the Earth's magnetic field. I will explain why that's important below this...

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/goes-magnetometer

Basically, what happens is the Earth's magnetosphere (more specifically it's magnetotail) gets stretched and then subsequently rubber bands back and releases the built up energy. When it rubber bands back, that produces the bursts of Aurora. They usually occur every 2-3 hours. On that website, you can time the substorms by looking at the large down spikes, that indicates the aurora is "charging up". Then when it spikes back up, that means it releases the energy in a beautiful aurora display. I would recommend changing the tab to 6 hours to get a close up view of what the magnetometer is measuring. All of this to say... You might have to wait another 2 hours or so for the bright views to come back! They come in waves and that's just the nature of these things. But it's cool, you can actually predict Aurora substorms and bright views.

Thanks for the awesome explanation! Based on this chart, can you give a rough prediction for the next time window we might see the lights again in our area? I missed the first round!

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Just now, Blizzard-on-GFS said:

Thanks for the awesome explanation! Based on this chart, can you give a rough prediction for the next time window we might see the lights again in our area? I missed the first round!

From my experience, on a more "normal" night of geomagnetic activity the "recharge" usually lasts 2-2.5 hours and then the spike back up is a quick 5-10 minute burst. Tonight isn't normal, we're talking very variable and chaotic conditions with the magnetic field strength. So from experience, I would say maybe around 10:30-11 there *could* be the next substorm. But it all changes in real time. I took this time lapse here earlier this week, which happened right during a substorm. Otherwise, the colors were mostly muted before and after this.

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Newman said:

From my experience, on a more "normal" night of geomagnetic activity the "recharge" usually lasts 2-2.5 hours and then the spike back up is a quick 5-10 minute burst. Tonight isn't normal, we're talking very variable and chaotic conditions with the magnetic field strength. So from experience, I would say maybe around 10:30-11 there *could* be the next substorm. But it all changes in real time. I took this time lapse here earlier this week, which happened right during a substorm. Otherwise, the colors were mostly muted before and after this.

 

 

 

so cool! thanks for the heads up! Also, that Timelapse I stunning. I've always wanted to see the northern lights my whole life so hopefully tonight is the night!

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Just a word of advice for you guys. Don’t go to a golf course to view the northern lights. I did and I went to leave and now I can’t leave because they’ve locked the gate. I didn’t know they had a gate. So now I think I’m stuck here till the morning.

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8 minutes ago, LVblizzard said:

Just a word of advice for you guys. Don’t go to a golf course to view the northern lights. I did and I went to leave and now I can’t leave because they’ve locked the gate. I didn’t know they had a gate. So now I think I’m stuck here till the morning.

Greens keeper Carl did night golfing while knocking back cannonballs

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Just now, BBasile said:

It peaked again and was actually naked eye visible.  Much more brilliant this go.  

DJI_0006 WM small.jpg

Interesting because it is half the brightness here.

Also I have a family member in West Palm Beach that claims they see it :huh:

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5 minutes ago, RedSky said:

Interesting because it is half the brightness here.

Also I have a family member in West Palm Beach that claims they see it :huh:

I did see some photos from Florida as well.  My phone had no problem capturing it.  Will have to check the SLR tomorrow to see what was captured.  

IMG_20241010_224809_(3465_x_3000_pixel).jpg

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Figured I'd drop some of the aurora pics I got tonight out here. Maybe not the brightest Aurora I've ever seen, but definitely the highest in the sky. The pillars stretched above zenith at timesScreenshot_20241011-013528.thumb.png.32ba62f4127247ff8a9f839704cb13ff.png

Screenshot_20241010-234936.thumb.png.7dca35d9f098f77389fb19a4d63f32c1.png

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Here in Chester County we saw our first subfreezing low of the season with the 31.9 degree reading at Warwick. Several of the lower spots in the County were in the 33 to 34 degree range so some likely frost in many areas under 450 feet ASL. Most of the higher spots remained in the low 40's like the 40.1 degree reading in East Nantmeal.
Another below normal day before a big warmup for the weekend followed by a chill down that lasts all of next week. Highs next week will likely remain in the 50's for high temperatures in the higher spots with no higher than the low 60's in lower locales. We should also see some additional frost or freeze chances by next Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
image.png.be186ec72dd73fee9e9dc1366289d0cf.pngimage.png.10b015bce779d7a1f0b90cd7220f7e26.png
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