Hi,
I was astonished to see the first activity as a lovely arc, grey green in colour to my SOUTH. spanned from SE through S to SW and was below Arcturus (“see aurora in south” image). After around 20mins the first sub-storm arrived and the coronal display pointing at Arcturus was remarkable.
It just went manic for around another 20min before breaking up. Another sub-storm began to form at ~0100BST and the process repeated. There was just the faintest hints of both red and purple in places. Although these came out dramatically in the images. The motion was easily seen as it moved over head.
It was still going as the sky brightened. A complete whole sky display from twilight to twilight…. the stuff of legend.
I have never seen such purple colouration so extensively before. A combination of incoming particle energy and enhancement from sunlight via fluorescence scattering from N in the upper part of the aurora. I wonder what it would have looked like in a “darker” part of the year…?
Certainly the best I’ve seen, since the big two night aurora in OCT 2003 and Nov 1979.
Lets hope there’s more to come!
cheers,
Bill.
