At 02:38 PM 11/8/04, Morgan Sparks wrote:
>There was quite a show here in the early hours today. The whole sky was
>practically on fire. (44° 28' N 73° 9' W)
>
>I dragged out my OM-1 and 21mm to see what I might get with some Fuji 800.
> Hopefully more than just a blur.
>
>The effect can't be captured on film, I think. You have to be there.
You are fortunate to be as far north and east. More important than
geodetic latitude is the geomagnetic latitude . . . a less than exacting
"correction" to the geomagnetic poles. There is a dip in this around the
eastern mid-west. Even though I'm at 40° 27' 30" N, at 86° 7' 50" W the
geomagnetic latitude is about 50°. Even so, it must be a very strong event
with Kp~=8 before we see an aurora here. AG was blessed with a more
northerly geomagnetic latitude in Iowa and he could see it before
midnight. It didn't sufficiently intensify for us to see it until well
after midnight . . . about 2-4 AM. I stayed up for quite a while and
finally threw in the towel . . . about an hour too early.
The Kp is climbing after a daylight lull as the auroral field swings back
around. Right now it's about 5. Hopefully it will continue to climb, and
those farther north will see another show. Don't know if it will go quite
as high though and if it doesn't, we probably won't see anything here. If
you want to estimate your geomagnetic latitude, and likelihood of seeing an
aurora based on your location and the Kp index, see the NOAA maps here (has
all four global quadrants, not just North America):
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/Aurora/index.html#kpmaps
Hopefully Morgan got some good pix of his show. If the Kp index continues
to climb I may not throw in the towel so quickly tonight.
-- John Lind
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