The Night
A CME impact had occurred in the late afternoon, pushing Bt values into the mid 30s nT. In the initial phase of the shock, the Bz values were mostly negative, dropping briefly into the -20s nT. After sunset, however, they became mostly north.
The skies were partly cloudy, and occasionally, they were a bit more overcast. Once again (like a week ago), I needed to do some trail grooming for the biathlon event that had gotten moved to this coming weekend. Because of the warm weather, this night (Friday night) was the better night to groom for the Sunday event.
Peak Activity
I grabbed some dinner at home before heading to Mt. Itasca, but I also occasionally checked the skies. It was difficult to pull out any auroral glow from the city lights scattering off the clouds overhead, but I could tell that the auroras were expanding, and they were reaching overhead. Soon, I could see the faint outline of auroral columns. It was time to grab the camera and shoot because the substorm was beginning. I went out on my back deck and on my driveway to shoot as the auroras shifted among the clouds.
Mt Itasca
I drove out to Mt Itasca to start the grooming. Since the auroras were already out, I decided to shoot first and groom later. I expected a bit more color and structure, given what I had seen at home, but the auroras reverted mostly to a pale green covering much of the sky. Since Bz was north and stayed north for the evening, the auroras gradually faded, never undergoing a more pronouned, bright substorm.
Wrap-up
It was a strong event with auroras overhead, but I was not able to capture much structure with it. I still enjoyed documenting what I saw.