Radiant display delights local sky watchers

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This article was published 23/05/2024 (650 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The bright pinks, purples, and greens of the northern lights lit up the night sky across the world over the weekend of May 10, 11 and 12 thanks to a massive geomagnetic storm.

Jeremy Rand, an astronomy enthusiast from eastern Manitoba, had one of the best seats available for the show. Before he even realized that there would be a geomagnetic storm, he had booked a campsite at Spruce Woods Provincial Park for the weekend of May 11 and 12. In 2022 the park was recognized by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada as the first dark-sky site in the province, meaning he would have a completely unobstructed view of the sky.

Rand regularly monitors space weather and aurora potential throughout the year. On May 4, he noticed something strange through his telescope — a large sunspot. Sunspot AR3664 “released a ton of huge solar flares,” according to Rand. He said that he could see the sunspot even without the telescope while he was wearing eclipse glasses he had form viewing the eclipse in April.

Coronal mass ejections were also being released by the sun in the following days. One of the solar flares was the largest of the current solar cycle as the sun reaches its solar maximum. The sun reaches its strongest at the end of its roughly 11-year solar cycle. Both coronal mass ejections and solar flares lead to auroras.

By May 8 the sunspot had grown considerably. Rand knew that the flares would create the perfect conditions for strong auroras.

Sure enough, on May 9 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center forecasted that a strong geomagnetic storm would hit Earth sometime that Friday or Saturday.

Patrick Johanneson is another Manitoban passionate about astronomy that spoke to the Sun about the weekend’s storm. Johanneson grew up in Sainte Rose du Lac, a small town where the night sky is perfectly dark for stargazing. He remembers seeing the northern lights in his youth “fairly vividly.” His interest in science fiction went hand in hand with his interest in space, hobbies that have stayed with him ever since.

He lives in Brandon now and travelled only about 15 minutes west to view these northern lights.

“It was one of the more intense shows I’ve seen,” Johanneson said.

The conditions of the storm were so powerful that people all over the world were able to see the lights. Every American state reported northern lights. Europe, India, and South America saw them, too.

The NOAA graded the storm as “extreme,” the first time it has done so since 2003. While the northern lights are the only visible trace of the storm, the NOAA has warned about potential effects on communications systems, power grids and satellites.

»cmcconkey@brandonsun.com