Rare Aurora

Last night people as far south as Mississippi saw the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, for the first time in almost a decade.  Last nights phenomenon has the opportunity to repeat itself tonight as the effects f the strong storm is still lingering.  Unfortunately being able to predict when tonights events will happen is not an exact science but will most likely occur between midnight and 2 AM.  Within the next year to year and a half this will become more common as the sun reaches the peak of its solar cycle during late 2012 into early 2013.

I get this question often, what exactly causes the Auroras, why does it produce color, what damage can it do?

• An Aurora starts when the Sun, a Yellow Dwarf Star, releases particles into space in an energetic release also know as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). As those particles bombarded our planet we are kept safe by our magnetic field.   At the the magnetic North and South Poles though, there is a gap where there is no magnetic field, allowing the high energy particles to enter our atmosphere.  As they bombard the upper levels, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen to produce a wave like light the moves across the sky usually going as low as the 42nd Parallel.  Last nights storm was so strong it was seen as far south as approximately, the 32nd Parallel.  

• As the altitude changes so does the color of the lights, Red is seen when the oxygen is above 150 miles, Green is seen when oxygen is up to 150 miles, Purple/Violet is seen with nitrogen is above 60 miles, and finally Blue is seen when nitrogen is up to 60 miles. 

•  As these hyper charged particles pass into our atmosphere it can cause many problems to modern technologies.  First is to our much depended on satellites.  From GPS, to TV, to telephones, to military technologies they all can be affected as the bombardment causes electronics in space to fail.  This would bring a virtual standstill to todays everyday life.  On the ground, if a storm is strong enough it could cause anything that is electrical and running to blackout.  This means any personal electronic, vehicles, power plants,  and substations.  The only way to fix this, is by replacing all damaged components which when it comes to power plants and substations it will be a lengthy and costly fix.

Weather Mike

Email photos of last nights and tonights phenomenon to weather.mike39@gmail.com