David's Astronomy Pages (All Sky Camera) Aurora on night 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17

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Aurora 2025-05-16

Aurora

Notes

Night Summary (Keogram) Plot AllSky Pictures Videos Magnetometer Plots Magnetometer Stack Plots (for reference) Planetary K-Index Plot (for reference) Aurora Forecast, NOAA/Ovation (for reference)

- Auroral activity on the night 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17 associated with a period of geomagnetic activity up to Kp6 (G2). Skies in NE Scotland were generally clear all-night. Activity was visible on camera images from around 23:15 to 01:00 UT (00:15 to 02:00 LT) and was notable in including some faint aurora in the southern sky. Observed activity comprised a variety of features, starting with faint green aurora emerging from twilight sky, then brightening and rising to 14° altitude with the subsequent development of curtains and violet rays up to 40° altitude, reaching a peak at 00:00 - 00:35 UT (01:00 - 01:35 LT) with aurora traces 'lifting off and moving into the southern sky. Activity then becoming chaotic & patchy, before declining and becoming lost into morning twlight sky. Images and video below compare colour images captured by the new Tapo C325WB Camera, with the black/white images captured using the existing AllSky Camera at approximately the same time.   -  Scandinavian magnetometers recorded activity from 21:00 to 05:45 UT with major peak in activity at 00:15 to 01:00 UT and a smaller peak in activity at around 05:00 UT.  Lerwick Magnetometer shows activity up to K7     - Telescope Images from 2025-05-16 >> -

Night Summary (Keogram) Plot

Night Summary Plot - North Sky (2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17) Aurora Activity visible on colour keogram from 23:15 to 01:00 UT (00:15 to 02:00 LT). with peak around 00:00 - 00:35 UT (01:00 - 01:35 LT) Note; Times on plot are local times (BST  = UTC +01h )

Night Summary Plot - North Sky  (2025-05-01 / 2025-05-02) Times on plot are local times (GMT  = UTC +01h ) Aurora Activity visible on b/wr keogram from 23:20 to 03:00 LT (22:20 to 02:00 UT), with peak around 02:30 - 03:00 LT (01:30 - 02:00 UT)

Scandinavia Magnetometers vs NorthCam Keogram - 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17

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Pictures (AllSky Camera)

Panoramic View - Northern Sky

2025-05-16 22:45 UT (23:45 LT) Very faint aurora arc likely developing but hard to see in the evening twilight sky.

2025-05-16 23:17 UT (2025-05-17 00:17 LT) Faint Auroral arc  with green ray in NNE direction Activity not visible on b/w all-sky camera due to bright sky (sun altitude -12.7°)

2025-05-16 23:31 UT (2025-05-17 00:32 LT) Activity increasing. Green aurora arc rising

2025-05-16 23:46 UT (2025-05-17 00:46 LT) Aurora arc brightening with faint violet ray in NW-NNW direction Aurora arc up to 13° altitude, stretching from WNW to NNE on b/w all-sky camera image (sun altitude -13.3°)

2025-05-16 23:55 UT (2025-05-17 00:55 LT) Aurora curtains starting to develop

2025-05-16 23:58 UT (2025-05-17 00:58 LT) Bright aurora curtain in NW-NNW direction , with violet rays. Rays in N direction. Aurora arc up to 14° altitude (sun altitude -13.3°)

2025-05-17 00:00 UT (01:00 LT) Curtains moving in N direction with vilot rays.

2025-05-17 00:14 UT (01:14 LT)  Aurora curtains in NW, NNW, N and NNE direction. Violet rays in NW direction. Secondary arc forming in N direction Tops of auora visible above bright sky glare on b/w all-sky camera Image (sun altitude -13.3°) with traces of aurora in southern sky

2025-05-17 00:19 UT (01:19 LT)  Faint aurora traces in southern sky on b/w AllSky Camera image

2025-05-17 00:22 UT (01:22 LT) Violet rays in NNW direction. Secondary arc  in NNW to NE direction

2025-05-17 00:27 UT (01:27 LT) Well developed curtains in N - NE direction. Aurora traces in southern sky on b/w AllSky Camera image

2025-05-17 00:31 UT (01:31 LT) Violet rays in NNW-N direction up to 40° altitude. Green aurora in NW-NNW direction becoming chaotic/patchy. Bright aurora in northern sky on b/w all-sky camera image (sun altitude -13.1°)

2025-05-17 00:35 UT (01:35 LT) Patchy / chaotic green aurora, with faint violet rays

2025-05-17 00:38 UT (01:38 LT) Patchy / chaotic aurora continuing

2025-05-17 00:58 UT (01:58 LT) Aurora continuing,  but weakening and gradually becoming lost in the brightning morning twilight sky

2025-05-17 01:16 UT (02:16 LT) Activity declining further and lost in the morning twilight sky

15s frames taken with Tapo C325WB Colour Camera vs 30s wider-field exposures taken with Oculus All Sky Camera

All Sky Image 2025-05-17 00:25 UT (01:25 LT) Aurora traces stretching into southern sky

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 Videos

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Magnetometer Plots

Magnetometer Plots from Observatory's Geomagnetic Station

Sumburgh data (sum) from SAMNet UK/AuroraWatch UK Solund (sol) & Karmoy (kar) data from TGO (Tromsø Geophysical Observatory) Brorfelde (bfe) data from DTU Space (Technical University of Denmark)

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Magnetometer Stack Plots (for reference)

Magnetometer Stack Plots from Scandinavia (ordered by latitude) H Component - 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17 Activity from 21:00 to 05:45 UT with major peak in activity at 00:15 to 01:00 UT and a smaller peak in activity at around 05:00 UT. Note: Geomagnetometer activity at rvk (Rorvik, 64.95N), dob (Dombas, 62.07N), sol (Solund, 61.08N) and kar (Karmoy, 59.21N) stations are used as indicators for potential auroral activity that may be visible from my Observatory situated at latitude 57.32N  (Map of Stations)

Graphed using 'make your own graph' facilities at  https://flux.phys.uit.no/compose/   (Tromsø Geophysical Observatory  ) Original data from Tromsø Geophysical Observatory (TGO), DTU Space (Technical University of Denmark) and Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) Data also displayed on SpaceWeatherLive's Europe Stackplot at  http://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/auroral-activity/magnetometers).

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Planetary K-Index Plot (for reference)

Estimated 3 hour Planetary K-Index (NOAA)  (from http://services.swpc.noaa.gov) Planetary-k-index_2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17 Not captured

SAMNET's magnetometer at Sumburgh, Shetland  (Chart Explanation)  - Geomagnetic activity on the night 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17 Plot shows elevated activity from 23:00 to 06:00 UT with major peak at 00:00 to 01:00 UT

8-day Lerwick Observatory K Index Showing max K7 on the night 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17

Planetary K-Index and other information (Space Weather Prediction Centre) shows maximum Kp4+ during the night 2025-05-16 / 2025-05-17

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Aurora Forecast, NOAA/Ovation (for reference) 

Aurora Forecast for 2025-05-17 00:54 UT (01:54 LT) (From Space Weather Prediction Centre,  http://www.swpc.noaa.gov )

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