Solar Storm Continues, Aurora Viewing Conditions Tonight
Strong Aurora Through Clouds
Solar wind continues to stream towards Earth at twice the normal rate. This wind, made of particles from the sun, is colliding with the Earth's magnetic field traveling at over 400 miles per second!
This solar wind is being pushed by a gigantic coronal hole. This whole is so large, the wind should continue to affect the Earth through tomorrow. This should result in auroras for another two nights.
Latest View of the Coronal Hole
The storm has produced two nights of good aurora displays, and tonight should be no different. The storm briefly reached G3 levels yesterday. If we get back to a G3 tonight, then aurora could be see across the northern US south to Interstate 90! Of course you will need to be in a dark place when viewing that far south.
There are several ways to keep in touch with the latest aurora conditions. The best way for a quick look is the Aurora model. This gives you an idea of what can be expected in the next 30 minutes or so. The shaded probability areas are for the aurora to be directly overhead. But, the aurora occurs about 50 miles up. So, it can be seen much further south than the shaded areas, but it will be dimmer and closer to the horizon the further south you are.
A few other sites to keep an eye on are Spaceweatherlive.com and Spaceweather.com
Through these sites, you can track the speed of the solar wind. Also, you want to check the interplanetary magnetic field, when it's facing south, its favorable for Auroras. Both websites have continuous information for this.
If you are unable to see the Aurora due to cloud cover or being too far south, check out some webcams. There are webcams from Alaska and Canada to northern Europe. Follow these links to view those.
Webcam sitesLapland aurora webcamNumerous webcams from northern Europe to Alaska
If you want to see the most recent Aurora pictures, many folks send images to spaceweather.com
Outlook for Thursday night
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