Aurora Chasing
As I stayed up late last night waiting for a piece of the Sun's vomit to impact Earth's magnetosphere and release photons into my eyes, I realized that it probably wasn't going to happen. So I went to bed.
For future expeditions of this sort, here's what various experts say is the best way to find out when your eyes will see the glory of the shining of the sun-barf:
- Check to see if your location falls inside the red line on these maps:
These images are the 30-minute forecast from the Ovation Auroral Forecast page at NOAA. That site shows the probability of auroral activity and where that activity can be seen from.
For a longer-term forecast, check the University of Alaska Fairbanks' aurora forecast pages, which are split by continent and have whole-night forecasts.
Another useful resource is the NOAA Space Weather Enthusiasts Dashboard, which shows a different real-time auroral map and solar wind monitoring data.
I didn't see any aurorae, but with this knowledge, I'm better prepared to find them in the future.
Updated 2018-01-05:
- Replaced old Ovation image URLs with new URLs: swap PNG for JPG.
- Added University of Alaska Fairbanks link, thanks to Ben Welsh.
Updated 2017-05-16:
- Replaced old Ovation link (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/30-minute-aurora-forecast) with new link (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast)
- Replaced old Space Weather Enthusiasts Dashboard link (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SWN/index.html) with new link (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/space-weather-enthusiasts-dashboard)
Updated 2015-01-18:
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center updated their site, breaking a lot of links and creating a new forecast product.
- Replaced old Kp map and old Wing Kp levels chart with integrated maps now seen above that describe the viewing probability and line
- Replaced link to old Space Weather Now page with link to NOAA's Space Weather Enthusiasts Dashboard.