Aurora Borealis shine through thick clouds
Taken by James MacAlpine on April 24, 2023 @
Upper Michigan, USA
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Who ever said, 'you can't see aurora on cloudy nights'? - Observations from 24th April 2023, 0200 to 0800 UT, 46.2 deg N.
With the strong storm reported, I expected to miss the show, as it was completely dark out with thick cloud cover. Weather forecasts showed the possibility of the clouds clearing around midnight to 0300 local time, so I set up to see what could be captured, and so glad I did.
The animation represents approximately a two hour period facing north: The dark clouds slowly transitioned from dark to a faint glow, to brightly backlit with rays of light piercing through, and then thinned to reveal the bright arch and curtain streching across the sky. Soon after the clouds moved off to the southeast and the sky cleared, the main arch/curtain also moved south until it was directly overhead, and then slightly to the south, I imagined the arch of the auroral oval was centered directly over the Straits of Mackinac around 45.8degN. The sky remained clear several hours, and aurora were visible in all directions from horizon to horizon, with active dancing and wisps of light zipping across the sky. The mood of the scene varied from the four directions, and was as if from a monster movie to the west, with the setting crescent misty moon and wisps of ghostly aurora light flying around.
The still image is from shortly after 0400 UT, facing east with the arc of curtains directly overhead, and with Lyra and Hercules showing faintly.
Along with the previous storm on March 23rd/24th, it was amazing to see aurora all the way to the southern horizon.
I found it interesting to compare the solar wind measures of the storms, which were thirty-one days apart, on 23/24th March and 23/24th April.
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