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Home » October Aurora in Shenandoah National Park: Part 2

October Aurora in Shenandoah National Park: Part 2

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Having just photographed a G3 strong geomagnetic storm on the night of 7-8 Oct, imagine my surprise when a long lasting X1.8 solar flare on the sun launched another coronal mass ejection (CME) of plasma directly toward the earth on the next night.  This CME was expected to arrive during the middle of the day on Thursday, Oct 10.  The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G4 severe geomagnetic storm watch for 10-11 Oct.  In a G4 or G5 storm in Virginia, it is possible to have the aurora directly overhead, with much of the aurora visible to the naked eye.   

 

For those of us in Northern Virginia who missed the G5 extreme storm on May 10th (due to rain and cloudy skies), this was a very exciting development.  The May 10th storm was the strongest display of aurora since 2003!   As predicted, the effects of the CME began to arrive around noon on 10 Oct. 

 

We departed for Shenandoah National Park around 4:30 pm with high hopes that the CME-driven storm would continue late into the night.   We arrived at Hogback Mountain overlook around 6 pm and set up our cameras.  As the sun began to dip below the horizon at 7:30 pm, we could already see red aurora to the north reaching high into the sky.

 

Aurora at sunset.

 

As the skies grew dark, the aurora conditions were approaching G5 extreme storm levels:

 

 

 

The moon was low in the sky and half full. It illuminated what looked like haze (or smoke) in the sky, creating diffuse atmospheric conditions for the aurora.

 

 

Taken with a super-wide angle lens at 10 mm. The vertical field of view covers a 120 degree arc from the horizon to directly overhead in the sky. The red aurora at the top of the image was directly over my head when I took this image.

 

Aurora over Skyline Drive in the eastern sky.

 

Red aurora in the sky to the south, with the moon peaking out from behind a tree.

 

The aurora faded after twilight, partially washed out by the moon.    However, at 10:20 pm, a severe-strength substorm once again put on an impressive aurora display: 

 

 

 

One of my main goals for photographing this G4 storm was to capture multiple aurora colors in the sky at the same time. For weak displays in VA, aurora is usually limited to a red glow on the horizon. For stronger displays, red pillars may be accompanied by a lower layer of green aurora. During a G4 or G5 storm the aurora will extend higher into the sky and may involve additional colors, such as yellow, orange, pink, blue and and violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 1 am on 11 Oct, another substorm lit up the sky. 

 

The band of green aurora at the bottom was moving so fast, I could not get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze its motion. It looked like green water sloshing around in a glass.

 

 

One of the last images of the night, the fading aurora with part of the Milky Way visible overhead.

 

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center recorded the peak of the G4 storm from 1100 am 10 Oct – 0200 am 11 Oct Eastern Standard Time  (1500 10 Oct – 0600 11 Oct UTC).   KP values during substorms clocked in at 7+ to 8+.    It was a wild ride!

Related Images:

Aurora seen from Shenandoah National Park, Oct 2024. Aurora seen from Shenandoah National Park, Oct 2024. Aurora seen from Shenandoah National Park, Oct 2024. Aurora over Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies Aurora seen from Shenandoah National Park, Oct 2024. Aurora seen from Shenandoah National Park, Oct 2024. Manassas Train Station, Winter Storm Blair, January 2025.