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Highway 14 Aurora

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Anyone who has tried chasing the aurora is familiar with disappointment. Especially in mid-latitudes, there can be months in a row with little to no activity. And when the sun does get more active, sometimes it feels like everything is working against you. Unpredictability is high. The timing is all wrong when the geomagnetic storm happens during the day, or on the cloudiest night of the week, or when the moon is so bright you can’t see it. But if you keep going out and watching, eventually you’ll catch a view like this. Last night I went up to an overlook in the Bighorn Mountains. For the first couple hours the aurora glowed but lacked any movement. Then at 10PM, a substorm broke out into these colorful pillars moving from right to left. Just half an hour later the moon was up and the show was over. Aurora activity will continue to increase as we head towards solar maximum.

Copyright
Kevin Palmer
Image Size
6016x4016 / 15.2MB
Keywords
Contained in galleries
Northern Lights
Anyone who has tried chasing the aurora is familiar with disappointment. Especially in mid-latitudes, there can be months in a row with little to no activity. And when the sun does get more active, sometimes it feels like everything is working against you. Unpredictability is high. The timing is all wrong when the geomagnetic storm happens during the day, or on the cloudiest night of the week, or when the moon is so bright you can’t see it. But if you keep going out and watching, eventually you’ll catch a view like this. Last night I went up to an overlook in the Bighorn Mountains. For the first couple hours the aurora glowed but lacked any movement. Then at 10PM, a substorm broke out into these colorful pillars moving from right to left. Just half an hour later the moon was up and the show was over. Aurora activity will continue to increase as we head towards solar maximum.