September 13, 2014 Aurora
Grand Rapids, MN
The second of two CMEs from sunspot 2158 arrived at Earth in the morning, and the impact was expected to generate a G3 (Kp=7) strong geomagnetic storm. The magnetic field strength in this plasma cloud reached 30 nT, and the strong geomagnetic storming conditions occurred as forecast, but the orientation of the magnetic field (north, not south) was highly unfavorable for producing auroras. A brief southward excursion occurred during the day, but it did not last long, and at 5:30 PM CDT, the magnetic field went north and stayed there throughout the entire night. Based on this, I decided not to go out, but shortly after 10:00, I got a call from Heidi Pinkerton, who said people were posting aurora shots. Apparently, if you got out early in the evening, you caught the tail end of the aurora display, which was better viewed from Scandinavia and the far eastern portions of North America.
After Heidi called, I raced home to get my camera, and we went out to McKinney Lake, which was the closest spot were a good view could be found. The view was obscured by mixing fog rising off the lake.
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| View from McKinney Lake in Grand Rapids. The auroral oval is the green glow on the left half of the picture, just above the horizon. The right half is street light-illuminated fog. The whole scene is brightly lit by the nearly full moon. |
I decided to try the Peterson Road black spruce bog, just another mile down the road. There was no fog there, but the auroras were rapidly dissipating. We took a few shots, then I headed back home. Heidi continued to her photography trip to Yellowstone (see her pictures at Root River Photography
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| View from the Peterson Road bog. A faint glow of green can be seen at the tree top level. |