Possible Northern Lights for Ireland

Donegal Skies

The Northern Lights may be visible from Ireland on Tues15th/ Wed 16th February. Read about it here:

http://www.donegalskies.com/in-the-skies

Hopefully the weather cooperates this time round. The Moon may interfere this time but it should still be worth keeping an eye out for.

Brendan
www.DonegalSkies.com

Donegal Skies

I was out looking for the aurora from 23:00-00:00 last night. I wasn't sure if I was seeing the aurora or light clouds. It may have just been the last flickers of a fading display, not sure.

Experienced Aurora hunter Martin McKenna from Northern Ireland did witness an aurora display last night around 10 o'clock. Check out his report and photos here: http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Sky Events Now.html

Be alert over the coming nights, right up to Thursday, as if the weather holds up it could be promising. Check out http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Default.asp?Date=20110215 and if you’re on twitter follow @Aurora_Alerts for alerts to possible northern lights. If the Kp value is 5 or more there should be a chance of seeing them from here, as far as I know.
Fingers crossed for clear skies!!

Stevek101

Will this first X-Flare of the new solar cycle increase the likelihood of us seeing the Aurora down here? I seen on an American site it possibly will be seen as far down as Texas!

Donegal Skies

Yes, the X-flare on Tuesday will certainly increase the likelyhood of seein the aurora as far south as Dublin and beyond. Latest estimates suggest the coronal mass ejection (CME) from Tuesday will arrive late on the 17th or early 18th.

The aurora are generally seen further south over north America than over Europe because of the corrected magnetic latitiudes. Take a look at the first two maps on this link:
http://www.softservenews.com/aurora.htm . You can see that you prob need to see a Kp value of 7 or 8 to see a really good display in Ireland (Kp 5 or 6 would prob make the aurora visible in Ireland, if the conditions are right). You'll also find links on that page for the predicted Kp values for this evening or the next 30mins.

Here's hoping for clear skies,

Brendan
www.DonegalSkies.com

Iancar29

We need clear skies....

Its looking like patchy clear skies at the mo...

Tomorrow

Mainly dry on Thursday with bright or sunny spells, though some showery rain will affect eastern counties from time to time. Temperatures again ranging 6 to 9 degrees, in light variable winds.

Outlook

Thursday night: will be cold and mostly dry with just the odd shower in parts. Lowest temperatures of 4 to 0 degrees with some frost in inland areas. Friday: It will be a dry start to Friday with some bright spells and just the threat of the odd shower or two. Becoming cloudy and windy with strong and gusty southeasterly winds as a band of rain moves in off the Atlantic.

rozeboosje

fingers and legs crossed so

MoonDancer

Wow I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing it. What would be the best time to look? As soon as it gets dark, or the middle of night etc?

hairy sailor

seen them over 20 years ago over kildare,amazing,was also lucky enough to see them in all there glory in the artic circle,hope it a good show here,one of the things to see before you kick the bucket

langdang

Saw it last time round in 2005(I think?). Hope we get it this time round too.
It was a fairly faint, even, green glow, not as impressive as the photos from the Arctic circle but worth keeping an eye out for.

Iancar29

langdang wrote: »

Saw it last time round in 2005(I think?). Hope we get it this time round too.
It was a fairly faint, even, green glow, not as impressive as the photos from the Arctic circle but worth keeping an eye out for.

Just to let yous know... the impressive pictures from Norway and findland , they are are maily long exposure pictures, making the colours show up more.

Yes , they are alot better to see in the artic region but they are not expected to be real vivid waves of colours.

Iancar29

Tonight

Misty tonight with further patches of fog. Some patches of drizzle, mainly in some eastern areas, but mostly dry, with a slight frost under any cloud breaks early in the night. But breezy, overcast weather will spread from the south later on and rain will develop in the southwest towards morning. Temperatures as low as -1 to plus 3 C., before midnight but ranging 2 to 6 C., by dawn.

Typical for me in the east...

langdang

Iancar29 wrote: »

they are not expected to be real vivid waves of colours.

Feck it anyway, have been missing that since they closed all the headshops;) man

Donegal Skies

The most aggressive solar eruption since 2007 sent a colossal coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth on the 15th of February. Latest estimates suggest the coronal mass ejection from the 15th will arrive at Earth late on the 17th or early 18th. This will further increase the likelihood of aurora (northern lights) displays over Donegal and the rest of Ireland when this CME reaches Earth on Thursday or Friday. This event coincides with other recent solar flares meaning observers could be in for a real treat if the weather cooperates. So keep your eyes peeled and monitor the online aurora forecasts. The full Moon on the 18th will drown out fainter aurora but any display should still be impressive.

This massive X-flare was has caught up to the previous flares earlier in the week and they are expected to smash in to the Earths atmosphere tonight (Thurs) or the early hours of friday morning. This will almost guarantee some level of Auroral actively over county and prob the country.

So in the words of Neil Young.... Tonight's the night! The clouds don't seem to know that though! However keep your eyes on the Aurora forecast and keep checking for clear spells, if you're lucky you could catch a glimpse. You will have get to a dark spot away from the lights though.

Bloody clouds...... crystel clear last night when there was no Auroral activety. Typical!

Anyway you can find Aurora forecasts here:
http://www.softservenews.com/aurora.htm

Watch the "real time space weather prediction" for predicted Kp numbers. The higher the Kp number the stronger the Aurora. you'll get an hour's warning of possible Aurora from it, Kp number larger than 4 or 5 may mean the Aurora will be visble here.

Also you can follow Aurora_Alerts on twitter here for predicted Kp numbers:
http://twitter.com/#!/Aurora_Alerts

and finally here is an Aurora forecast for tonight but keep checking the other sources for more up to date data:
http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraFo...?Date=20110217


Here's hoping for clear spells!

mickger844posts

Extremely outside chance of us in Waterford seeing anything even with clear skies but any tiny chance seems to be gone with cloud cover here in last few hours. Hopefully somewhere in the country it will be seen and a few pics might be available.

Usersname

Woooo! I just saw some aurora borealis!! Check it out people! Look north!

peterako

Was out a 5am...saw nothing but stars and moonlit terrain.....

I live in hope!

snowstreams

Is there any chance of a display of it tonight? Or has the flare passed us by now?
i got a chance to see a display of the aurora borealis in Canada at about the same latitude as cork. Its annoying to see that geographic latitude and geomagnetic latitude are two quite different things!

cmwild31

I took Photos of the Northern Lights seen on the Curragh, Kildare on Tuesday.
you can view them here www.facebook.com/chriswildphotography