Northern Lights in the South – We got to see the Northern Lights in East Tennessee.
Northern Lights in the South
I got some good photos with my iPhone. You really couldn’t see them much with your eyes.
The lights are now known as STEVE, which stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
I disabled live and used night mode 3 seconds.
I barely could get the green colors, mostly I got magenta and purples.
We went up to Cherokee Dam and took pictures too. People there complaining because couldn’t see it. I shared with some of the people saying about it about using their phones to see it.
They say you can see it from around 9 pm May 10, 2024 to 2 am May 11, 2024. The ones we saw were 10 pm to 11:30 pm. News reports are saying you could see it as far South as Alabama, but some people are claiming to have seen it as far South as Florida.
A lot of people are posting a bunch of good ones they took.
I thank God for allowing us to see another rare part of His beautiful creation. I believe the last time in the south it was visible was in 2003.
The 2024 was a G5, the highest extreme geomagnetic storm.
I do believe I saw the Northern Lights in Michigan before. I was in the Northern lower Michigan.
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, and their southern counterpart, the Aurora Australis, are caused by the interaction of the solar wind—a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun—with Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. When these charged particles travel towards Earth, they are funneled towards the magnetic poles by Earth’s magnetic field. Upon reaching the upper atmosphere, they collide with gas molecules such as nitrogen and oxygen.
These collisions excite the gas molecules, causing them to emit light as they return to their normal state. The different colors of the auroras—typically green, purple, red, and sometimes yellow—are due to the type of gas molecule and the altitude at which the collision occurs. For instance, collisions with oxygen can result in green or red light, while nitrogen can produce purple or blue light.
The auroras usually occur in the polar regions because that’s where the magnetic field lines converge. However, during periods of intense solar activity, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections, the auroras can be seen at lower latitudes, which is why sometimes the Northern Lights can be observed in the south. This is a rare event and is often associated with what’s known as a geomagnetic storm, which can expand the auroras’ visibility far beyond their usual polar locations.
The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, display a mesmerizing array of colors in the night sky. The colors you see are due to the interaction of solar particles with various gases in Earth’s atmosphere at different altitudes:
- Green: The most common color, produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 to 190 miles above the Earth.
- Red: Caused by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of over 150 miles, and by nitrogen.
- Blue and Purple: Occur at lower altitudes and are produced by nitrogen.
- Yellow and Pink: These colors can appear when green aurora light mixes with red or blue.
Each gas emits its own unique color as it gets excited by the charged particles from the sun. The process is similar to how neon lights work, where the color depends on the type of gas inside the tube. The human eye is most sensitive to green, which is why green auroras are the most commonly and easily observed.
Did you get to see the Northern Lights in the South?
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Northern Lights in the South – We got to see the Northern Lights in East Tennessee.
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