The biggest solar storm since 2005

The biggest solar storm since 2005 occured on January 22nd, 2012. It will arrive on earth two days later. This storm follows the eruption of the 19th which we enjoyed with the beautiful northern lights of last weekend. So we won’t miss it under any circumstances!

On January 24th, in the second part of the afternoon, we start to organize the hunt on the job’s chat: “Someone’s going to see the auroras tonight?”, “Do you have a place for me in the car?” “We must not miss this one, it’s the biggest eruption for 6 years! “… We finally fill two cars, with our guests from England who have not yet had a chance to see northern lights. We begin the chase of the northern lights around 20:00.

We arrive at the meeting point on the island of Kvaløya and wait patiently for the arrival of the green dancers. We wait, wait, wait, … ZZZZzzzz. After about one hour, we really start to freeze. It is therefore decided to wait in the car, which is warmer. We wait, wait, wait … ZZZZzzzzz. We have been waiting for approximately 1:30 and still nothing on the horizon. Discouragement begins to be felt. … When suddenly … my phone rings! (hahaha! You’re owned! ^^). Two of our colleagues have ventured too much in the snow and are stuck with their car. They need help to push the car and are really close to us… well, that’s what they tell us. About 20 minutes later, we find them. These clowns have ventured on a cross-country skiing trail, which supposedly is a road during summer. I guess we can believe what we want to :)

But we barely put a feet out of the car that the show begins … And it starts VERY, VERY powerfully! Our guests are impressed. We are also admirative to those green movements in the sky. They are not always extremely powerful, but their size and number are incredible!

We take a few moments of calm to help our fellows. We laugh, we chat, but as soon as the auroras appear, the silence is only pierced by a few sounds of admiration … “Wooooooow!”

-julien