Subject: Aurora!!!



Hi Aki and Janos,

I saw the aurora tonight!  From the San Francisco Bay!  It was amazing,
even this far south!  At about 10:15 PM PST, I received a telephone call
from my brother who was in Richland, Washington.  He excitedly told me
that he was watching the most spectacular aurora that he had ever seen.
I went outside and first saw a nebulous red glow in the northeast, from
the horizon to about 25 degrees above the horizon. It was quite a vivid
red or red-orange, and it had vague undulations.  I drove to the Bay shore
for a view with fewer lights, and then I saw a red pillar which originated
near the horizon and passed through the Big Dipper.  This gradually
disappeared, to be replaced two nearly parallel bluish-white streaks, with
generally the same trajectories as the earlier red one, but narrower and
more distinct and more sharply defined.  These also brightened to a peak
and then faded, or rather, transitioned, to less distinct but broader red
streaks.  Then appeared two horizontal aqua bands, one to the
north-northwest and the other to the northeast and both about 15 degrees
above the horizon, the northeastern one appearing first.  These also
brightened and faded, and over the next fifteen minutes they disappeared
and re-appeared repeatedly, always as a pair, lasting perhaps 45 seconds
each time.  Their azimuthal positions slowly moved to the west by perhaps
20-30 deg.  As these continued, I noticed the most curious spectacle of
all!  Several more bluish-white streaks appeared nearly overhead, and they
radiated from a point not to the north, but strangely, from a point some
degrees south of the zenith, the radix being roughly in the center of the
constellation Leo.  These faded and more appeared, always radiating from
this point in Leo.  I have never heard of such a thing!  What would cause
this starburst pattern centered so far south from north?  I am wondering
if other observers in other locations saw the same pattern?

Quite a remarkable spectacle, all told.  It was amazing to see such a
complicated display so far south.

I am wondering if any satellites (or astronauts) got fried....

 - Greg