observation aurora Netherlands 17 February 2002

[jan lameer]

Hi!
It seems there was an observation last saturday/sundaynight of aurora, by a meteorologist who went to work.
Time 04:30 - 05 UT, 17 Feb 2002, blood red weak glow that occupied large parts of the sky, especially in northern directions and reaching high elevation.
Any thoughts on this, or confirmation?

Greetings, Jan Lameer

[Ulrich Rieth]

...K index was 2 in Scheggerott and Kiruna was only at -50nT.
About 16 hours later the chances were better.
I think it was no aurora.
Especially if you say high in elevation. This needs K's of 7 and higher. Low horizon displays are possible at K4 or maybe 3 if you have really clear and very dark skies.
Regards

Ulrich

[jan lameer]

O.K., Thanks, we cannot get the archival data of Norwegian magnetometers, yet.
By the way, the display was observed as weak, faint.
There were some shocks observed by ACE though around that time...

[Ulrich Rieth]

The auroral oval is that far away...no chance even with the shocks *o.T.*

[Katja Gottschewski]

Hi Jan,

> O.K., Thanks, we cannot get the archival data of Norwegian
> magnetometers, yet.

You can get the archival data of 9 Norwegian MMs here: http://geo.phys.uit.no/oldxdt2.html
Activity at the time of the observation was low to non-existent.

Katja

[Martin Wagner]

> Hi!
> It seems there was an observation last saturday/sundaynight of
> aurora, by a meteorologist who went to work.
> Time 04:30 - 05 UT, 17 Feb 2002, blood red weak glow that
> occupied large parts of the sky, especially in northern
> directions and reaching high elevation.
> Any thoughts on this, or confirmation?

> Greetings, Jan Lameer

Hallo Jan,
didn't you still get my e-mail? Please write me your adress to martin.wagner@ipe.uni-stuttgart.de else I can't send you the Purus. Please tell me when you want me to send it. I don't know how long it will take and I want that you get it in time. I can only sent it on a Monday.

Greetings,
Martin

[jan lameer]

Martin!
I will write you my address to-nite, I hadn't had a chance to read my e-mail yet.
Greetings, Jan

[jan lameer]

> Hi Katja,

Thanx, I didn't know this particular link. Oh well, it seems that this one possible sighting is proven non auroral. The observer is an experienced observer but hadn't seen aurora yet.

It is nice to be able to verify observations through this forum, thanx

[jan lameer]

I am still a little puzzled
Just stuborn, might fade away, late nite report.

We couldn't find the Norwegian Magnetometer readings because they were all blank to-day; Wednesday: no data. There might be a possibility that the Norwegian MgM data are only archieved after one month. I want to see in another two weeks if those archive readings are still the same.

We also have no observations of negative reports from Iceland or northern Scotland yet. Just to be sure.
Perhaps a developing sub-storm that was caused by sunlight over northern Russia but didn't occur there and decided to fall apart over the Northsea?

Hm, it's rather hypothetical, but I would love to see a full table of data.

JanL

[Katja Gottschewski]

Hi Jan,

> We couldn't find the Norwegian Magnetometer readings because
> they were all blank to-day; Wednesday: no data.

Where and which readings? You saw the archive readings, didn't you? I am a bit confused here. I looked at the page again and there's data both from Feb. 17 and from yesterday and from today until UT 18 or so.

> There might be a
> possibility that the Norwegian MgM data are only archieved after
> one month. I want to see in another two weeks if those archive
> readings are still the same.

Where should the readings which are there now come from if they are not the "real" readings? The date, including the year, is clearly stated.

Another interesting question would be - in case it was *not* aurora, what could it have been?

Katja

[jan lameer]

Hi Katja

Sorry for being confusing, the data that you provided the link to are very clear indeed: there was no magnetic disturbance at the time of that observation.
I was a little confused myself whether the data could have still been from 2001. But that is not the case.

It is indeed interesting to find out what it was this person saw.
Greetings, Jan Lameer