On the south Pacific island of New Caledonia, no one expects to see auroras. Ever. Situated about halfway between Tonga and Australia, the cigar-shaped island is too close to the equator for Northern or Southern Lights.
Yet on May 10, 2024, this happened:
© Frédéric DesmoulinsThe auroras australis have been observed as far away as New Caledonia (Boulouparis). Photo taken on the evening of May 11, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. Nikon D500, 16-80 f/2.8-4.0, ISO 5000, 20s f/3.2. Historic first for New Caledonia.
"I have rarely been so happy when taking a photo!" says Frédéric Desmoulins, who photographed the display from Boulouparis in the island's south province. "I could see the red color of the auroras with my naked eye. According to the New Caledonian Astronomy Society,
these photos are the first for this territory."
"The auroral visibility from New Caledonia is really unique and extremely valuable," says Hisashi Hayakawa, a space weather researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.
"The last time sky watchers saw auroras in the area may have been during the Carrington Event of Sept. 1859, when auroras were sighted
from a ship in the Coral Sea."
Hayakawa specializes in historical studies of great auroral storms. He tries to go back in time as far as possible. The problem is, magnetometers and other modern sensors didn't exist hundreds of years ago. Instead, he looks for records of aurora sightings in old newspapers, diaries, ships logs and even paintings.
Great Storms are identified by their low latitude - anything with naked-eye auroras below 30° MLAT (magnetic latitude).
"
May 10th was definitely a 'Great Storm,'" declares Hayakawa.
"Naked-eye auroras in New Caledonia (MLAT = -26.4°) and Puerto Rico (MLAT = 27.2°) cracked the latitude barrier in both of Earth's hemispheres."
© Hisashi Hayakawa
. The above timeline from a research paper by Hayakawa has been modified to display the May 10th event. It is the green dot on the far-right end of the timeline.
Hayakawa is eager for more data. Readers, if you witnessed auroras at low latitudes on May 10th, please
submit your photos to our gallery and
fill out this questionnaire from Hayakawa. Your observations may be included in a future research paper.
Comment: Now get this: in December 1859 the
Atlantic magazine
published a detailed report about the 1859 Carrington Event, and noted, among many other things in its superb report (oh for the days when
The Atlantic published good research), that:
The aurora borealis of August 28th was surpassingly brilliant not only in the northern portion of this continent, but also as far south as the equator, — as well as in Cuba, Jamaica, California, and the greater portion of Europe. [...]
In Jamaica the aurora borealis was witnessed for the first time, perhaps, since the discovery of this island by Columbus. So rare is the phenomenon in those latitudes, that it was taken for the glare of a fire, and was associated with the recent riots.
Guess what erupted in New Caledonia three days after auroras were sighted there...
serious rioting akin to a 'civil war':
France deploys military to quell independence protests and serious rioting in Pacific territory of New CaledoniaSpaceweather.com
also reports that another massive 'Carrington-class' sunspot is poised to hurl a geomagnetic storm Mars' way...
MONSTER SUNSPOT TARGETS MARS: First Earth, now Mars. Carrington-class sunspot AR3664 is now directly facing the Red Planet. NASA's Mars rover Perseverance saw it yesterday through the dusty air of Jezero Crater:
© NASA's Mars rover Perseverance
"We're bracing for impact!" says says Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Schneider works with an ultraviolet camera on NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, which may be able to observe the display. Stay tuned!
Not one word about Earth's weakening field strength in this article. Not one. Even 'spaceweather.com' has gone over to the dark side.