CSRA residents get excited about rare appearance of northern lights
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The dazzling displays of the northern lights captivated the South over the weekend.
A solar storm brought the aurora borealis to our region in a historic event that’s been all over social media as people have been posting about the beautiful colors in the sky.
The sun has produced strong solar flares since Wednesday, resulting in at least seven outbursts of plasma. Each eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection, can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
MORE AURORA COVERAGE:
- In rare sight, northern lights dance across CSRA’s night sky
- Solar storm puts on brilliant light show
The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth. It is all part of the solar activity ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle.
“It’s a very rare thing to have an aurora come down this far south. Aurora of course, are always visible, not always visible, but are frequently visible in the very northern, you know, parts of the planet,” said retired astronomical photographer Chris Hetlage. “If you’re in Alaska, or if you’re in Norway, or up in those areas, you’re probably fairly accustomed to seeing aurora. But to have them come this far south is extremely unusual. The last time this happened was 2003.”
People across the CSRA made sure to make time to capture the moment.
“It was a pretty pink color and there were some pale white streaks in the sky. So I just took my phone out and had it on night mode and wanted to snap the picture. It came in really bright. So then I just started snapping pictures like crazy,” said Jennifer Poole, who saw the aurora from her own backyard.
People said it felt like they were in Alaska right here in Augusta.
“The storms are measured, sort of like a hurricane are measured from like, cat 1 to cat 5. They’re measured from a G-1 to G-5. And the forecast was this would be a G-4, which is a pretty powerful storm coming from the sun,” said Hetlage.
But these powerful electrical storms could cause some damage.
“It is exciting, and it is something to see. But it also can be quite dangerous. These electrical storms are hitting us and they can affect the satellites and communication systems. They can take out parts of the power grid,” he said.
Luckily, these storms aren’t that extreme here, and the CSRA was able to see the lights throughout the weekend, minus the cloud coverage that rolled across the region Sunday evening
“I was in awe. I mean, I really was just blown away by the colors. It was so beautiful. And the lighting was somewhat transparent so you could still see the stars behind it and it was just really beautiful,” said Poole.
The solar storm is winding down now, so the aurora may not make another appearance in the CSRA.
For the aurora forecast, visit https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/.
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