Shorty after sunset on 10 May 2024, I headed out to Colonel By Lake on the Rideau Canal north of Kingston, Ontario to observe what was advertised as an exceptionally strong possibility of observable Aurora Borealis with the potential for it to be visible at low latitudes as far south as Florida. The celestial show did not disappoint, unless one had the misfortune of being subjected to adverse cloud coverage, which at the onset of my aurora chase was problematic.
Starting at 10:00 pm, the northern light manifested itself. I managed to take a few interesting shots with the cloud-diffused aurora lights refection off the water body. Some purple hues developed directly overhead in breaks in the clouds. In spite of the obstructing atmospheric moisture, there was no doubt in my mind this Northern Light event amounted to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our 44° latitude region.
With viewing conditions deteriorating, I drove north to Seeley’s Bay and took a few shots along the way before light rain showers began to fall. By 1:00 am, I was back home, somewhat deflated, but busy consulting the weather channel searching for more favorable conditions. I was delighted to discover that a transition from a low to a high atmospheric pressure system was a short distance west of Kingston where clear skies prevailed.
Coffee in hand, I went back out and drove county roads to Odessa, Yarker, Camden East and Napanee looking for venues away from major cities lights offering natural foreground features to complement what was indeed an amazing overhead light show under perfectly clear skies. By 4:30 am, I was back to my starting point at Colonel By Lake witnessing the aurora’s last stand as the mid-spring night sky was already transiting to the pre-dawn blue hour with the aurora lights and stars quickly fading away even though sunrise was not due for another hour. Looking at the last scenes, I kind of regret not having looped back to Colonel By Lake sooner, but looking at the visual record of my “nuit blanche” (sleepless night) I should be very grateful for the experience nature afforded me. However, this celestial show is very addictive with timing being the operating word in that the next couple of nights were letdowns in spite of the aurora activity remaining high.
It all began with Corona Mass Ejections (CME) from a cluster of sunspots shown herein photographed a couple of days after the massive sun flares. At the time of the CME, the sunspots were better facing earth but had since moved closer to the edge of the sun disk for they are not still but have a rotation period of about 26 days. Sunspots are cooler areas on the sun surface, showing as darker regions with the cluster of interest being as big as 17 earths in size. The spots are associated with regions of the sun where the magnetic field is particularly strong, so strong that it keeps heat and energy from reaching the sun surface.
Presently, the sun is approaching its most active period in its 11-year cycle with the numbers and sizes of the sunspots correlating to this activity. Analogically, I visualize the locally strong magnetic field creating the sunspots as one’s thumb holding the pressure within a soda pop bottle while it is being shaken. Eventually, the pressure will build up to the point it can no longer be contained, resulting in a powerful discharge, akin to a Corona Mass Ejection forcefully blasting electrically charged particles (plasma) into space and producing immense solar flares that can escape the sun’s gravity to form solar winds.
The flash of light resulting from CME can reach earth in about 8 minutes forewarning the arrival of CME that can reach earth in as little as 15 hours or as late as several days depending on the strength of the solar event. Although the CME travels slower than the speed of light, its electrically charged particles nonetheless collide with earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds up to 70 million kilometres per hour. Our protection against such electromagnetic storms comes from earth’s magnetic field. Yet, gasses in our upper atmosphere are energized by the solar winds and will emit light (photons) upon dropping to their respective normal energy states.
For instance, nitrogen and oxygen being the principal components of our atmosphere will be the principal contributors to the light emitted by auroras, with greens and reds produced by oxygen molecules at different altitudes whereas blues and some reds are emitted by nitrogen. Purple hues will appear as a result of overlapping reds and blues. Some of the aurora shown herein emitted yellow hues which are rare and typically associated with high solar activity.
The moving bands and strands of colours testify to the fluid, “organic” nature of normally invisible earth’s magnetic field, attributes not so evident from the still images. Interestingly, the curtains of lights associated to auroras appear to be almost within reach, say at levels consistent with low level moisture clouds. However, this is an optical illusion arising from the fact auroras are covering large expanses of the sky. Indeed, the light emitting auroras are taking place 100 to 400 km above the earth surface whereas the highest moisture clouds do not even reach 5 km in altitude.
Photons released by the exited gasses in out upper atmosphere travelled this far before reaching the retinas of countless also excited eyes looking skyward for this out of this world phenomenon even though human eyes lack the resolution and sensitivity to fully appreciate the marveling nature of auroras the way photographic gear and cell phone technology can unveil for us provided we take the time to observe.
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