Northern lights go way, way south !!!

AURORAS IN THE USA: Northern Lights have spilled across the Canadian border into the contiguous USA. Sighting reports have come from as far south asArkansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Kentucky,Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Maryland, New York, Ohio and central California. The display was caused by the CME impact described below. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

CME IMPACT: A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT). According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosynchronous orbit for a brief period between 19:06 UT and 19:11 UT. Earth-orbiting spacecraft could have been directly exposed to solar wind plasma during that time.

The impact also sparked a geomagnetic storm, underway now. Geir Øye sends this picture from Ørsta, Norway:

"These are the strongest and most beautiful auroras I've ever seen," says Øye, a veteran observer of Northern Lights. "I can only imagine what the display must have been further north."

Brian Emfinger / www.realclearwx.com

Photographer Brian Emfinger captured this view of the northern lights from a spot near Ozark, Ark.

Alan Boyle writes

A solar outburst sparked surprising displays of the northern lights as far south as Arkansas and North Carolina tonight, marking one of the farthest-reaching auroral shows in years.

As word spread about the geomagnetic storm, photos streamed onto the Web from the usual places, such as Norway, Sweden and Iceland, but also from locales that are typically too far south to see the northern lights: Oklahoma ... Kansas ... Kentucky ...Tennessee ... Virginia.

Among the websites tracking the fireworks are SpaceWeather.com, the Weather Channel and Universe Today.

Arkansas photographer Brian Emfinger was alerted to the northern lights by SpaceWeather.com's aurora alert. "I ran out and put my camera out and immediately saw reddish aurora," he wrote. "I ran out into the field, and within a few minutes the aurora went crazy!"

David DelaGardelle / maddwarfworkshop.com

David DelaGardelle snapped this picture of the northern lights as he was heading home from his Indiana workshop.

David DelaGardelle, who's a full-time blacksmith/swordmaker/artisan in Indiana, was driving home from his Mad Dwarf Workshop when he saw the show. He said he was awestruck by the sight of "blood-red northern lights aflame in the night sky."

The cause of the show was a coronal mass ejection from the sun that hit Earth's magnetosphere at about 2 p.m. ET, SpaceWeather.com reported. The impact caused a strong compression in the magnetic field, allowing electrically charged particles from the solar wind to penetrate down to geosynchronous orbit (22,000 miles or 35,000 kilometers in altitude). That means Earth-orbiting satellites could have been exposed to the solar storm, analysts said.

Solar activity is on the upswing toward an expected peak of the sun's 11-year cycle in 2013, and the past few months have been marked by strong auroral activity. Here's a picture of an aurora as seen from the International Space Station on Sept. 29 as it flew over the midwestern United States. Consult NASA's Earth Observatory website to get your bearings, and watch this QuickTime video to experience the space station's flyover:

NASA

This greenish auroral display was seen from the International Space Station on Sept. 29 as the orbital outpost was passing over the American Midwest. The city lights of Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago and St. Louis are visible below.

All these pictures may be pretty, but stronger solar storms can have a significant downside: They could disrupt satellite communication as well as power grids. There were no immediate indications that tonight's bout of space weather caused significant problems.