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UNEXPECTED GEOMAGNETIC STORM: This was not in the forecast. A CME sideswiped Earth\'s magnetic field on Sept. 26th (~2200 UT), sparking a G2-class geomagnetic storm. \"Bright gaudy colors danced across the heavens for more than an hour,\" says Christopher Mathews, who took this picture from his backyard in Hraunborg, Iceland:
Bright auroras were sighted in multiple locations around Iceland, Norway, and Canada. They even dipped into the United States with green pillars over Minnesota and Wisconsin.
We\'re not sure where the instigating CME came from. Probably, it is one of two CMEs that left the sun on Sept. 23rd. Neither was supposed to hit Earth and, indeed, this was not a direct hit. The off-target CME passed nearby, snowplowing dense (73 protons/cc) solar wind plasma onto Earth\'s magnetic field. The sudden load triggered the geomagnetic storm. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
more images: from Thomas Spence of Tofte, Minnesota; from Markus Varik of Tromsø, Norway; from Natalia Robba of Hella, Iceland; from Petr Horálek of Tromsø, Norway; from Matthew Merrell of central Minnesota; from Wil Cheung of Hof, Iceland; from Dirk S. Miller of Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
https://spaceweather.com/
Bright auroras were sighted in multiple locations around Iceland, Norway, and Canada. They even dipped into the United States with green pillars over Minnesota and Wisconsin.
We\'re not sure where the instigating CME came from. Probably, it is one of two CMEs that left the sun on Sept. 23rd. Neither was supposed to hit Earth and, indeed, this was not a direct hit. The off-target CME passed nearby, snowplowing dense (73 protons/cc) solar wind plasma onto Earth\'s magnetic field. The sudden load triggered the geomagnetic storm. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
more images: from Thomas Spence of Tofte, Minnesota; from Markus Varik of Tromsø, Norway; from Natalia Robba of Hella, Iceland; from Petr Horálek of Tromsø, Norway; from Matthew Merrell of central Minnesota; from Wil Cheung of Hof, Iceland; from Dirk S. Miller of Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
https://spaceweather.com/