{"id":1245,"date":"2017-12-05T13:47:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T13:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/aurorawatchuk\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2018-01-23T15:24:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:24:51","slug":"a-night-of-the-shy-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/aurorawatchuk\/2017\/12\/05\/a-night-of-the-shy-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"A night of the shy aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, we posted<\/a> that a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm watch<\/a> was in place for 04-05 December. This storm watch was issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency<\/a> who are responsible for space weather forecasts<\/a> in the US, and was the result of a recurrent coronal hole. This coronal hole was the source of a high speed stream of solar wind that gave us UK aurora sightings back at the start of November. With a G2 storm, we expect that aurora may be visible from across swathes of the northern UK – local conditions permitting.<\/p>\n

Local conditions<\/h2>\n

This is always a problem for the UK. Even the best aurora display can be scuppered by bad weather and a bright moon. Both of which we had last night. Cloud covered much of the north of the UK and we were only one night past a “super moon”<\/a>. But all was not lost, some clear patches were to be found – especially on the north East coast.<\/p>\n

Where was the aurora seen from?<\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, last night wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for. Activity levels did not reach G2 storm levels, though they did reach G1 (minor). More on that below. We issued a yellow alert at 7:30pm<\/a> last night from our Crooktree magnetometer (and even a little earlier from our Shetland magnetometer<\/a>) and this slightly elevated level was recorded for the next few hours. With a yellow alert, we expect that aurora might be visible on camera from Scotland and perhaps the north of England.<\/p>\n

Saltburn, north Yorkshire, England, UK<\/strong><\/p>\n

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#aurora<\/a> 22.10 on 4\/12\/17 taken from Saltburn, UK @VirtualAstro<\/a> @auroraserviceeu<\/a> @aurorawatchuk<\/a> @_SpaceWeather_<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/aX9WvBMPU6<\/a><\/p>\n

— Lindsey Taylor (@LindseyT_1992) December 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n