Question about northern lights?

[heaven31]

I know this is an NLC forum and I hope it's ok to ask this here, but is anyone interested in the Northern Lights and has anyone from the UK ever seen them here. It's a dream of mine to see these and just wondered if anyone else shared my interest?

I did see them briefly over Canada on a flight from the USA in November of 2005, but it wasn't a very good sighting as it's hard to see them properly from a plane window lol.

Jo x

[tmcewan]

Hi Jo,

I think you'll find most (if not all!) NLC observers have an interest in the aurora. We see them here in Central Scotland fairly frequently at times of high solar activity. Not too much happening lately though as the sun is so near it's minimum phase.

Tom

[martinastro]

Yes I am extremely interested in the Aurora and have logged 73 sightings from here in N. Ireland. For a geomagnetic storm you will need a solar flare and CME impact to generate magnificent aurora displays however, by far the most common way of getting an aurora is from a solar wind stream impacting Earth from a Coronal hole in the Sun. These happen on a regular basis and produce the vast majority of aurora displays for the UK.

I use this site...

www.analemma.de/english/auranews.html

..which is a great way of monitoring aurora activity. Best thing to do is watch the Kp index, size of the auroral oval and tilt of the IMF or Bz component which when in the negative can start the beginning of a display. Hope this is of some help.

[heaven31]

Thanks Martin, I'm sure that link will come in useful. The one I normally use is www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/ tho I'm sure you already know of this one lol. I've never managed to see a good display, specially from the UK and probably wouldn't unless it was very strong as I live right by the airport so there's alot of light pollution from that ( I think that hampers my NLC viewing too). One day I hope to take a trip to Norway or Iceland to really see them properly.

Jo x

[martinastro]

I wouldn't recommend that link Jo as the oval is never accurate and always larger than it should be. The orange part of the oval however is the real oval. The link I supplied is pretty good and is what I use all the time.

[heaven31]

Thanks I've added that new link to my faves and will be sure to use that one in future.

Jo x

[Mark H]

I've seen Aurora several times from down here in Hampshire, but never had a camera to take pics of it! When the chance of observing it comes up, I tend not to pay too much attention of the KP index, instead looking at solar wind speed and how far south the bz is.

[markt]

Mark said:

When the chance of observing it comes up, I tend not to pay too much attention of the KP index, instead looking at solar wind speed and how far south the bz is.

I think the KP index is a 3 hour average, whereas the data you get for the solar wind speed is updated more in terms of minutes. As the aurora is a very dynamic thing these will give a more instantaneouslly accurate indication of whether or not an aurora is likely to be in progress...

I use solar wind and bz as an indicator myself too

[n0tkg]

Observing and photographing the Aurora Borealis is one of my interests. Once the K index goes above 4 I start paying attention to the night sky, but I usually do not get aurora worth photographing until the K hits 5 or 6. I also do a lot of ham radio, and can often tell if aurora is active by the noise in the radio bands.

Here are a few of my Aurora photos:
meiselphotographic.com/aurora_gallery.htm

[tmcewan]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the link to your superb aurora images. I'm aware of the extensive observations carried out by Jay Brausch in North Dakota so know that you are in a prime location for observing the aurora. Jay often detects a few NLC's each year too, despite the comparatively low latitude. Have you ever observed any NLC's from your site?

Tom

[martinastro]

Welcome Paul and great aurora images by the way!!

I find that aurora can be seen from here when the KP is at 4 however I have seen them when the KP was at 3 and other times when the charts were dead so they can be quite sneaky at times.

Hope you catch NLCs soon.

[n0tkg]

Thank you Tom and Martin for the welcome. I did get some NLC photos last night but they were nothing great. By the time I remembered to take a look outside at the sky it was a bit too late. I'll try to be more alert tonight! I had not developed an interest in NLC until last year. I have seem them on various occasions over the years but never tried to photograph them. Last year, once I started looking for them, I had no luck!

I am in a very good location for watching aurora. I have an unobstructed view of the sky and the magnetic latitude here is 57, which is about as good as it gets in the Lower 48 States.

Paul

[martinastro]

Paul here is a future challenge for you...catch NLC and aurora in the same image!