Reader Pics: CME Spawns Awe-Inspiring Bright Red Aurorae

By Nancy Atkinson - October 25, 2011 05:07 AM UTC | Solar Astronomy

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Now updated with more images and video!

Reports of spectacular aurora are coming in! A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24, 2011 at about 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT), spawning some stunning red sky shows. All-red aurorae are fairly rare, and are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles, being excited by collisions from charged particles released from the Sun.

Above is the view by Randy Halverson, of

Dakotalapse.com

fame, whose work we feature often on UT. He's not in his usual location of South Dakota, but is in Wisconsin, along with his son River Halverson. Randy said

via Twitter

that the brightest aurora he saw was about 8:25 or so local time (CDT).

[caption id="attachment_90261" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Oct. 24, 2011 aurora seen in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Credit: John Chumack"]

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John Chumack is another astrophotographer whose work we feature often. Here's one of his shots of the Aurora Borealis on 10-24-2011 from John Bryan State Park, near Yellow Springs, Ohio. "30 second exposure, ISO 400, 8mm fisheye lens," John says. See more from him on his website,

Galactic Images

(and he uploads frequently to our Flickr group, too!)

[caption id="attachment_90293" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Taken from a driveway in northern Ohio on October 24, 2011. Credit: Joe Lloyd"]

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Joe Lloyd from northern Ohio took this image from his driveway!

[caption id="attachment_90258" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Aurora in Wichita, Kansas USA. Credit: Jim Hammer via Flickr. "]

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Aurora reaching fairly far south in Kansas!

Below is a video from East Martin, Michigan posted on You Tube:

[caption id="attachment_90259" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Aurora in Wisconsin. Credit: River Halverson and Randy Halverson from Dakotalapse"]

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Another from Randy Halverson.

[caption id="attachment_90296" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Image from the all-sky AuroraMax camera in Yellowknife, Ontario. http://twitpic.com/75owna"]

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This is an image from the

AuroraMax all-sky camera

located in Yellowknife, Ontario Canada. If you can't see aurora where you are located, you can always check out the live video every night from AuroraMax,

Here's the event on the Sun that started it all, the coronal mass ejection (CME) that caused aurora. The SOlar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured this "coronograph" – so-called because the images block the Sun, and only show the Sun's atmosphere, or corona.

You can see more on

Universe Today's Flickr Group

. Upload your images, and we may feature them!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com