aurora over Dublin

RobAMerc

Hi all,

I am seeing on twitter tonight that the Northern lights are been seen over the North coast and some folks on flights landing un Dublin are seeing them.

Does anyone know what the conditions we need to see them in Ireland ?

cheers

littlema

The slightest hint of it looking north from south Sligo just now. Would be better maybe later?

James74

This evening from Dunree Fort with just the phone camera.

Was able to see structure and movement with the naked eye. Great show from Inishowen.

John.Icy

wow to the above! As good as it gets on these shores.

Re: conditions to see them. A clear sky, firstly! 😜 Unfortunately there's been many a geomagnetic storm that would have produced visible lights in Ireland but it's been cloudy. Secondly, seeing them from Dublin is near impossible due to light pollution, hence when those landing saw a decent aurora that everyone on the ground was totally oblivious too. You'd have to go driving to somewhere much darker that has a dark northern horizon and sky.

There are other things like the planetary k-index to keep an eye out on. It's not fool proof though, as it was only KP 5 tonight which sometimes isn't enough to see them as far south as Ireland. https://www.spaceweather.com/ is your site to watch. The current auroral oval graph on the left hand side is a useful tool. I generally find when there's yellows/reds visible on the image then you'll be able to see a display on the horizon in the north, even if the oval is not over the country. Over the years you'd be amazed how many times the folk up in Donegal report sightings that no one else on the else island is aware of.

Solar winds north of 600 km/sec useful. Interplanetary magnetic field titled south for auroras.

Second bigger CME to hit by the 28th - so people should be on the lookout.

RobAMerc

I am considering a drive to the north coast tomorrow night. Chances of seeing them from there ????

James74

Now the camera definitely brightened that pic up a bit. But last night was the first time we were able to see movement and lines, even a hint of the curtain effect. I've often saw a green glow on the horizon from Inishowen but this was a big step up from that.

I would check the weather before any long drive up here. We were lucky last night with the conditions, sky was crystal and still. 100% covered with high thin cloud at the minute, would have been enough to hide any display last night.

But if it's clear and there is activity, I encourage all that can to wrap up, get north and dark. Good luck.

batman_oh

Any ideas where you might catch this around Dublin? Or is it mostly the west?

M.T. Cranium

There must be a major geomagnetic storm underway as we've just seen a very bright display here (at 49 N 118 W). This is by far the brightest aurora I've seen since March 1989. I hope it lasts for another go round the hemisphere for your next opportunity. In fact there may be breaking news, I just had a look at the NOAA space weather site and you can see a large coronal mass ejection event near the south pole of the Sun at about 0100h, so that may be well timed to produce further brilliant auroral displays tonight (your time) and the following night also.

John.Icy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120292644#Comment_120292644

If the second CME, which is forecast to further intensity the ongoing activity, arrives just after nightfall or darkness today - then excellent chance tonight again. Forecast looks pretty good for clear spells tonight. It's forecast arrival for now is just 27-28th, so hard to pinpoint down. Could be after midnight though which is a long night waiting...

You'd really want to be out and about when the CME hits, that's when the vibrant displays are at its best. There was strong metrics again at around 1-2am last night but I didn't see any fresh reports of sightings in Ireland (then again, was anyone searching?). There's a bit of luck involved all things said.

John.Icy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120292929#Comment_120292929

Dublin county north west is very rural and would have the clearest horizon to the north, if you position yourself where your north includes all the rural parts of Meath up ahead. Anything closer to the city or to the south of the city will have lots of light pollution. I'm sure deep into the Wicklow Mts. will provide the darkness, but at that stage you're going further south and that's the opposite direction you want to be heading, unless an almighty X flare had been unleashed.

No guarantee you see anything from near Dublin, but somewhere in the north west of the county is your best attempt. Hard to know from the plane reports exactly how close last nights display was to Dublin, your line of sight is distorted at altitude and the horizon you see from up there is not the horizon you might see on the ground. There was next to no reports coming from north Dublin or other rural parts of mid-Leinster of a display. But again, who was searching maybe.

RobAMerc

was thinking - Hill of Tara, or maybe going up to the Mourne mountains - I saw one chap got a great look from Lurgan - I assume over Lough Neagh

sryanbruen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120293165#Comment_120293165

Given Carlow got this further southward... problem with Dublin was cloud. I didn't bother to go to a darker spot with all that cloud. There was clearer interludes to the south and west which added insult to injury then when clearer slots appeared around 1 am, there was nothing to show..

https://twitter.com/CarlowWeather/status/1629959818407493632?s=20

Im in south Dublin suburbs, would love to see the lights, but conditions never suitable in my location. I have an app to alert me as to when to look out.

sryanbruen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120293802#Comment_120293802

Hill of Tara is great.

Here's a time lapse of one from there in March 2016 from an old poster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA832tcAPLY

John.Icy

Well there you go @sryanbruen, it's mad, usually we have better notice if a potential all island display is on the cards! I wasn't really keeping an eye on it. Most CMEs come and go with nowt here.

KP is up around 7 atm. Considering the CME to hit tonight is said to be even more potent, could be some spectacular displays in Ireland tonight if clear spots happen.

But as you said, around 1am there was no sign of anything despite high solar wind, stronger KP values than when the sightings happened, IMF was strongly titled south. Seems the goldilocks zone for us is the time around the actual CME impact, when displays stretch far beyond what the auroral oval charts indicate.

Unfortunately looks like a lot of cloud is about today and into tonight so we could be out of luck :(

spookwoman

Dublin Balbriggan area might be a spot around 9

RobAMerc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120293828#Comment_120293828

whats the app ?

pauldry

Too cloudy for any Aurora tonight unfortunately.

What's the aurora forecast for tomorrow?

Midnight tonight will be the peak. But 90 percent chance it will be cloudy.

John.Icy

We've a few hours left for some breaks to appear or else that's all she wrote for tonight as there's a lot of cloud about and will take some clearing. Maybe some luck heading towards the north east coast with some breakage appearing? Second CME not arrived yet. Expected at some stage tonight or in the early am. Also in a solar wind too from a coronal hole, secondary to either of the CME impacts. Tonight could have been a big one if the weather was on our side and got the second impact before everyone's asleep. Not sure how much spillover will be around tomorrow darkness.

Looking at updates and we've already breached G3 level in the last hour, which is very strong. What a shame!

pauldry

Could be clear in Waterford and Wexford near midnight. Look out if ye are there.

sryanbruen

Yeah another ruined completely by cloud. I see Achill managed something at least but...

RobAMerc

we went up to the Hill of tara after dark and got to see...... the hill of tara in the dark. Too cloudy I'm afraid. Saw nout ( although its impressive to see just how much Dublin lights the sky )

Chris_5339762

Too cloudy sadly down in Cork but I would have given it a go with the camera.

I think this was a combination of two things - the auroral oval being displaced south as well as a Kp7 storm. usually a Kp7 isn't really visible.

Did people see it with the naked eye at all? All I see really (and its great of course) is 30 - 60 second exposures with cameras.

James74

Could absolutely see movement and "structure" from Inishowen. Have seen the green glow before several times here, but last Sunday night was on a completely different level.