Geomagnetic Storm Sparks Spectacular Show of Lights

My fellow volunteer Phil gazes at the skies

Last night, March 14/15, the skies over Churchill were filled with ribbons of light, tall billowing curtains of color, and pulsing coronas overhead. Like last week, it all started close to twilight. As the evening progressed, the aurora became more and more dramatic.

Checking Spaceweather.com, I learned something new about auroras, and in particular what forces brought us the visual treat of last night. It was a CIR, a co-rotating interaction region, which hit Earth's magnetic field and sparked bright auroras all around the Arctic region. Basically, CIRs are transition zones between slow and fast-moving solar wind streams.

Tonight, Earth is moving into a stream of high-speed solar wind following behind the CIR. Enjoy the rest of these photos. There will likely be another post if we can stay awake long enough to photograph it! Most have had minimal processing other than raising the exposure.

This was taken with a fisheye lens.