Auroral Disaster

Monday evening. You sit in your chair and realize that their is a geomagnetic storm going on. But it was cloudy all day long and it is miserable outside. But why not check the cloud cover around Edmonton. And I what I saw made me believe I might get lucky that night, clouds clearing north of Edmonton. I picked up a fellow German, who wanted to see the aurora borealis in all its beauty as well and we headed north of the city. Edmonton is a big mess of light pollution, so you want to get either north or west of the city where the northern lights will appear without any city lights. We found a nice place on a small waterhole north of Morinville, but despite a KP-Value of 6-, which suggests that the Aurora should be very active and a geomagnetic storm is going on, we just saw an arch of green on the horizon with a view rays popping through the clouds. So in the aftermath I got to know that the earths magnetic field was pointing northwards and it should be southward for a strong display. So one lesson you learn when observing natural phenomena is that you can plan and predict them somehow, put in a complex system as the earths magnetic field the slightest change in a complex set of parameters will destroy your plans. All in all a good night with good company and one nice picture.

Auroral Disaster