April 11, 2015 Auroras
Chippewa National Forest
Day 2 of a disturbed magnetosphere, following a CME passage the previous day, brought auroras to northern Minnesota. Bz was nearly -10 nT, so I headed out expecting to see a nice show. There was not much variation in the magnetic field as well as little variation in solar wind speed, so I was wondering whether or not there would be a good substorm.
Indeed, as soon as it became dark enough, I could see the auroral oval from home, and it was about in the same location as it had been the previous night at the same time. However, as it turned out, there really was not much of a substorm, and rather than seeing brief episodes of rapidly moving structure, a steady oval persisted for much of the night. After I went to bed, however, there was a pretty decent show around 4:00 AM.
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| My normal stopping spot on Pughole Lake. |
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| Forjer Lake. |
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| Looking up through the trees. |
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| Cottonwood Lake. |
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| County Road 48. The really nice thing about aurora chasing, as opposed to storm chasing, is that you can stop and shoot in the middle of the road and not have to worry too much about traffic (although I never stay long). |
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