Did you miss last night's auroras? Next time get a wake-up call from Spaceweather PHONE.
AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is due to hit Earth on March 25th or 26th, and the impact could spark a geomagnetic storm. Sky watchers from Scandinavia to Alaska should be alert for auroras.
The stage is set for a good display. Last night, even before the solar wind stream arrived in force, Northern Lights were active over Alberta, Canada:
"While driving home from Edmonton, I noticed a faint arc forming in the north, and by the time I got home to pick up my camera, the auroras had developed into a horizon to horizon event," says photographer Robb McCaghren. "At times it was quite faint, but overall, a great display!"
March 2007 Aurora Gallery
[aurora alerts] [night sky cameras]
LAKE PILLAR: When we see sun pillars, they are usually above the sun, among the clouds where ice crystals intercept sunbeams and spread them into a vertical column of light. But not always. On March 22nd, Sylvain Chapeland of Geneva, Switzerland, saw a different sort of sun pillar. "It was coming up from a lake!"
"I saw it during a morning walk in the Jura mountains, just before a snow storm hit," he says. (The storm can be seen approaching from the left in the full-sized picture.)
"This is an unusual one," notes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Sunlight reflected upwards from the lake is being reflected off plate-shaped crystals in the air to form a lower sun pillar--or is it a lake pillar?"
Chapeland suggests calling it a "third-hand pillar, because these are third-hand light rays, first reflected from the water of the lake, then on the ice crystals floating around!" Whatever we call it, it's a beauty!
March 19th Solar Eclipse Gallery
Updated March 23, 2007
SPACE WEATHER
SPACE WEATHER
