Report of Aurora Observation

[anonymous]

I would like to report an aurora sighting from the March 31 Geomagentic
Storm.  I saw a report that lots of activity was being seen from roughly my
latittude out in California.  My wife and I drove out to a reasonably dark
area outside of Landrum, South Carolina constantly observing a dull crimson
glow whenever we could get away from streetlights. This was first noticed at
04:30 UT but it wasn't until about 05:00 that we got to where we could
really see the celestial light show.  As we finally got into darkness my
wife told me to pull over quick, that there were light colored streaks
shimmering in the red glow.  I pulled of in a drive way and we watched a
spectacular display from here in northwestern SC, approximately 35 N 82 W.
The sky showed a very bright deep crimson glow extending from the horizon up
about 45 degrees and the glow stretched from roughly Coma Bernices in the
west all the
way over past Lyra in the northeast.  As we sat by the side of the road, we
watched numerous
light-colored, slightly greenish tinged streaks appear, they slowly shifted
around and disappeared and reapppeared, seeming to come together to a point
almost directly over Arcturus for a while, which was close to the zenith.
We watched it shift and glow for about 20 minutes before it slowly faded
away.  At one point a very large light colored band slowly grew and split
the red into two distinct beams like crimson spotlights.  It then began to
fade, which lasted slowly until about 06:15 UT, though it was difficult to
tell exactly when it faded completely out as fog started to roll in.  As it
faded most of the sky was glowing a dim red, when we hit a fog free spot I
could see it distinctly to the north directly over the big dipper out of the
car window on the way back and my wife said she could just barely see it
high in the southeast.  It was an eerie, spectacular display and by far the
best one I've ever seen this far south.

whyzard
aka
Jim Menius
Spartanburg, SC