Kp 7.67

Ah, yes. Another night of chasing awe and wonder through the land of frustration.

The Kp level hit 7.33 after midnight, so I set out for a location that I knew could give me an unobstructed view north across the Snohomish River valley. As I approached the site, it grew foggier and foggier. I could not believe my luck! It is the middle of July, well into our dry season, and here is a dense fog that belongs to early autumn.

Plan abandoned, I spent the next three hours driving over a hundred miles in ever-widening circles looking for enough clearing to make an image. Through that time, the Kp number hovered between 7 and 7.67 – enough energy to be seen here, but for the dense ceiling of stratus clouds rolling in from the Sound. The longer I drove, the heavier the cloud cover became. So at 4 AM, I headed home, under a sky that was brightening with dawn, despite the fact that the Kp level had now hit 8.

I’ll certainly check my enthusiasm next time.

The Space Environment Center’s Neural Net Program Estimates that . . .
in 4 minutes, the Geomagnetic Activity level (Kp number) will be 8 — at ‘STORM’ LEVEL! (It’s On!!)

The photo shown here was made by pointing the camera at the northern sky and making a long exposure (20 sec at f 3.5, ISO 800). In other words, I could not see any activity in the sky because of the light pollution. I was parked along SR 530 west of Arlington (which is pretty dark), so I know that I need to scout a location further from civilization – probably on the other side of the Cascades.

Another thing I need to find is a reliable weather radar display that allows me to see what kind of cloud cover is approaching, and how fast. The new smart phones make all of this easier in ways that could not be imagined twenty years ago, so it is just a matter of rooting around on the net.

The solar wind is subsiding, so I am reasonably sure there will be nothing worth chasing tonight.

Just as well – I need some sleep.

UPDATE: I guess I’ve carped about the weather too much.  Bottom line is that these colors are very, very cool, and I’m really glad I snagged this image!