© AP Photo/realclearwx.com, Brian Emfinger
A photo provided by storm chaser Brian Emfinger shows the aurora borealis lighting up the Ozark, Ark., sky on Monday. In the Alleghany Highlands in Virginia, residents who said they saw an aircraft, heard an explosion then saw a fireball may have seen the lights, the Alleghany County sheriff said.
A photo provided by storm chaser Brian Emfinger shows the aurora borealis lighting up the Ozark, Ark., sky on Monday. In the Alleghany Highlands in Virginia, residents who said they saw an aircraft, heard an explosion then saw a fireball may have seen the lights, the Alleghany County sheriff said.
The lights are usually visible near the North Pole and South Pole when solar storms happen in the spring. But for the second time in a decade, the lights, called aurora borealis, stretched as far south as Arkansas.
"They are very rare events," said NASA scientist Bill Cooke, who posted aurora photos on the Marshall Space Flight Center's blog. "We don't see them this far south that often."
People in the upper Alleghany Highlands began calling 911 about 9:30 p.m. Monday, reporting that they saw what appeared to be a small aircraft, heard an explosion, and saw a fireball on a mountain near Ogle Creek Road, said Dunlap Fire & Rescue Chief Travis Mullins.
Firefighters from four fire stations, sheriff's deputies from Alleghany County and Greenbrier County, W.Va., and state troopers searched the area until about 1:30a.m., then resumed the hunt Tuesday morning.
A state police helicopter joined the search about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday from Lynchburg because strong winds impeded safe flight Monday, state police spokesman Sgt. Rob Carpentieri said.
Nothing was found and a search was stopped Tuesday afternoon. The Federal Aviation Administration and military authorities reported no missing aircraft in the region.
"The northern lights are a possibility," said Alleghany County Sheriff Kevin Hall. "We have to go, based on what the witnesses told us."
The lights are a rare event in latitudes below the northern U.S. border, though not unheard of, explained Roanoke College physics and astronomy professor Matthew Fleenor. When they are seen in the South, they're usually very low intensity.
In Arkansas, storm chaser Brian Emfinger called Monday's view "extremely vivid, the most vivid I have ever seen." He said it was only the second northern lights in a decade that he has seen this far south.
Because the lights are so rare, they can be mistaken for something else.
"In a blackout, people in New York City see things they've never been able to see before," Fleenor said. They may mistake "the Milky Way for a ghost."
The effects of the solar storm reached Earth eight hours earlier than forecast on Monday, said Bob Rutledge, the National Weather Service space weather forecast chief. That made it perfect for viewing.
"The peak of the intensity happened when it was dark or becoming dark over the U.S., coupled with the clear skies," Rutledge said. "We did have significant aurora sightings."
Often solar storms can damage satellites and power grids. This one didn't, Rutledge said.
An aurora borealis begins when a solar storm's magnetic wind slams against Earth's magnetic field, exciting oxygen and nitrogen electrons. When the electrons calm, they emit red and green colors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is part of a naturally occuring cycle in the sun's activity that is peaking over the next couple of years. Back in 1859 there was the Carrington Event which caused serious damage to the early telegraph system, the only large scale electrical systems at the time. Read "The Sun Kings" or look it up on Wiki. If such an event were to happen in modern times it could easily destroy the power grid across a whole contintent. It would take many years for the affected area to recover after the loss of so much of its infrastructure and the consequences for the population are almost unthinkable in todays world, being so heavily dependant upon electricity.