March 23, 2024 Auroras
Grand Rapids, MN
A high speed solar wind stream impacted Earth in the late afternoon and evening hours, bringing a period of southward Bz and some increasing solar wind speeds. I went out to take some pictures.
I first went down to the neighborhood boat landing. Since this is in town, there is a lot of light pollution, but that doesn't matter a whole lot when the moon is nearly full. I didn't see anything obvious with my eyes, but I thought there might be a little structure on the horizon. I snapped a picture with my cell phone, and it revealed some faint columns.
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| Faint auroras on Blandin Bay in Grand Rapids. |
Given the location near the horizon, I decided to try a couple places on the north side of town with a slightly better view of the northern horizon. I stopped at McKinney Lake and took a few shots. From McKinney Lake, I could see the auroras, but they were somewhat faint and in their slowly pulsating "blob" form. I was a little surprised they took this form this early in the night (well, I guess it was just after midnight).
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| Auroras on McKinney Lake. |
I decided to try one more location. I drove up to Prairie Lake. This is a somewhat popular spot for people to show up and just hang out in their cars, but traffic was really light around town today. I guess it's a really slow time of year since winter recreational activities are done for the season, and many of the older year-round residents are still in their winter homes in Arizona or Florida. I arrived at the boat landing, and there was nobody there. The auroras were a bit more visible than they had been at either of my prior locations, and an arc was beginning to form. That arc never really exploded in a substorm, but it did have some structure while I was shooting. I headed home before 2:00 AM.
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| Auroras on Prairie Lake. |