November 9, 2004 in City

Northern lights put on dazzling show

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Tom Davenport/ photo

Hayden city lights reflect on a low layer of fog as the constellation Orion shines through the northern lights Sunday night as seen from Croffoot Park.
(Full-size photo)

A large display of the northern lights dazzled skywatchers Sunday and Monday nights, and scientists said there is a chance of another light show tonight.

“It was absolutely magnificent,” said Mary Singer of the Spokane Astronomical Society.

She said the lights swirled, pulsated, brightened and dimmed through the evening. One of the swirls created a shape that looked like a peacock showing its feathers.

Singer said a Web site mailing list alerted her to the sunspot activity that causes aurora displays. Photographs posted today on the Web site spaceweather.com show that the lights were seen over a wide area of the Northern Hemisphere.

Scientists are predicting that a large sunspot now pointed toward Earth may continue the display of aurora borealis tonight.

Auroras appear as bands of bright light in blue, green or red, and may take on the more classic curtain-like appearance if solar activity is sufficiently strong. The lights are caused by an interaction between electrically charged solar particles and the Earth’s magnetic field.

Normally, the aurora band hovers above the Earth at latitude 67 degrees north, but an increase in solar wind from a sunspot activity can cause the northern lights to extend into middle latitudes, including the Spokane region at about 47 degrees north.

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