September 30, 2014 Auroras
Northern Minnesota
As has been common much of September, the magnetic field contained in the solar wind pointed southward to -5 nT and opposed the Earth's magnetic field, creating an opportunity to the solar wind to interact with the upper atmosphere. One problem for seeing the auroras in northern Minnesota was a thin deck of low clouds that covered much of the state, but there was some clearing from near Grand Rapids to the North Dakota border. The clouds persisted in areas farther south and east, and when the sun set the, clouds started to move back northwest, and by the time it was dark enough to see stars, the entire sky was filled. I would have to drive to see the auroras.
My first stop was Ball Club Lake. I looked north and could see the auroras as I pulled up to the boat landing. The moon was pretty new, but it was getting bright enough to have an influence on visibility. I looked again to the north and didn't think I was seeing much of an oval, but the camera brought out the color contrast, and it was pretty plainly visible on the viewfinder.
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| Auroral oval and a column over Ball Club Lake. It looks like the wild rice has been harvested here. |
There were still a few clouds around, and I could see clear skies to the northwest, so I headed west to Bena, where a larger view over Lake Winnibigoshish would provide a better view of the entire auroral oval. I found a Forest Service boat landing that I had not visited before and found it to be more to my liking than the small beach I had found right in Bena.
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| Looking northwest on Lake Winnibogoshish. |
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| Looking directly north at the auroral oval on Lake Winnibogoshish. |
Well, the clouds moved in pretty quickly at my new shooting location, so I decided to start driving back toward home. When I got back east of Winnie, I had an option to go back northeast and around the lake in case I chose to chase the retreating clearing line. It was pretty tempting because the oval actually looked pretty good from Bena, and Bz was still south. I stopped at my decision point at Winnie Dam Road. Okay, I can drive to Winnie Dam, and if there's no visible clearing to the north, I could swing back southeast and go home.
I got to Winnie Dam and saw that the clearing line was still within sight, but it would be a fair bit of a drive. I could hopefully drive to Squaw Lake or Alvwood, take a couple pictures, then drive home. Well, maybe I wanted a bit more room for the substorm to happen.
I cleared the clouds near Alvwood and kept driving to Northome. Between the clearing and my arrival at Northome, the oval brightened considerably, and it looked like a substorm would be happening soon. I'd hav e to quickly find a shooting location. I hadn't shot around Northome before, and the nearest boat landing (on Island Lake) pointed south. That would not work.
I checked my map and found Bartlett Lake on the east side of the town. I just didn't see any public access location. Oh well, I would be making it quick until I figured that out. So, east of town I drove, and I soon was looking over the lake from Highway 1. I turned around and surveyed for places to pull off. There were none, but the auroras looked great, and there was no traffic, so I pulled over as far as I could, took the tripods and cameras out, and started shooting.
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| Auroras over Bartlett Lake in Northome. |
I snapped quite a few pictures, pointing the camera in various directions to capture different parts of the lake and aurora. There was some structure, which seemed to be moving around pretty good. I was starting to wonder if there would be no distinct substorm. Soon enough, however, I saw a brightening on the east side of the oval, and the structure rippled across from east to west. I had arrived just in time for the substorm. I kept looking east and west on the road for traffic, but there were no cars other than mine. I set the camera in "substorm mode" and shot the quickly evolving structure.
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| The substorm in progress. |
Just as quickly as the substorm started, the clouds caught up to me and started closing the curtains on this show. I took as many pictures as I could with still no traffic on Highway 1. Knowing that the first substorm was usually the best of the night, and given that the clouds were picking up the pace in their northwestward march, I decided this was enough for me. I drove home after this.
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| The curtain is closing on this show. Time to drive home and get some sleep! |