We (Renate and I, as well as Sam and his wife) started screaming: "LOOK AT THAT!!! I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!"
Suddenly, and without any warning, the amorphous horizon glow mushroomed to cover the entire northern sky with a brilliant greenish hue. I then decided to call my friend Sam Storch (an assiduous amateur astronomer) who lived in the nearby town of North Merrick, and asked him to check his northern sky he too confirmed that there was something out there quite unlike the typical pinkish haze caused by local streetlights. I immediately noticed a strange glow near the horizon as well. I think it might be an aurora that's beginning and you might want to check it out."īleary eyed (my wife Renate and I were asleep when the call came), I raised the blinds on my bedroom window, which conveniently faced due north. "I apologize for calling so late," he said, "but there's an odd glow that I’m seeing and I’m not quite sure what it is. An acquaintance who lived in Boonton, N.J., called to alert me that he thought he might be looking at an aurora low on the northern horizon. I was living in Levittown, N.Y., when my phone rang shortly after midnight on the morning of March 13. The accompanying geomagnetic storm was so strong that on that same day it caused a surge on the Quebec power grid and knocked out electricity across the entire Canadian province. (Auroras are seen there, on average, only once in a thousand nights.) So potent was the blast of particles emitted from the X8 flare that it pushed the aurora zone of visibility - usually confined to central and northern Canada - as far south as Honduras and the Caribbean island of Dominica. The show was not constant, but seemed to ebb and flow in intensity. EST on March 13, the first wave of subatomic particles arrived at the Earth's magnetic poles, producing an incredible northern lights display that lasted almost two days. What was more important was that this flare was close to the sun's central meridian, meaning that its sharp stream of energetic particles was aimed directly at the Earth.Īt 1 a.m. EST on March 10, another major flare erupted - an X8 - a rare type of flare in that it was easily visible as a flash of white light within the dark sunspot. (Image credit: ©1989 Ken Spencer)Īt 2 p.m. Photograph of the aurora of March 13, 1989, taken from Sea Cliff, NY, by Ken Spencer.
0 kommentar(er)
