Rogue Auroral Patch or Plasmoid?

[Talitha]

Attached is a film image I took almost 6 years ago.

The first time I saw this glowing patch in the sky was almost 10 years ago (didn't own a night camera yet). It was 9:30pm on 30 August 1998, and the glowing patch could be seen quite clearly despite twilight and a 1st quarter Moon 20° above the WSW horizon. The glow was somewhere near the border of AND and PEG.

Then a month later on 27 September 1998 I saw it again. This time it repeatedly faded in and out for over 2 hours and was consistently in the same area of the sky and did not rise witht he stars.

I was finally able to capture it on film (4 years later ) at about 4:00am on 16 September 2002. My Aurora group concurred that it was a rogue Auroral patch, but all of the readings that night were flat-lined.. no activity whatsoever.

Then one of the members contacted me privately and said it might be a 'plasmoid'. I'm still clueless but am leaning towards the rogue Auroral patch suggestion because of the signature green color.. but what color would a plasmoid show up as on film, and does anyone know more about them?

[dogfish]

Carol

Stop this. First it was Gengenshein, now it's plasmoid. If it wasn't for Wikipedia I'd think you were making this stuff up

Nice pic, BTW.

Cheers Martin

[Talitha]

Carol

Stop this. First it was Gengenshein, now it's plasmoid. If it wasn't for Wikipedia I'd think you were making this stuff up

Nice pic, BTW.

Cheers Martin

:laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3:

Thanks, Martin.

Nope, not making it up.. just curious as to what it really is. :scratch:

[The Warthog]

I dunno, but thinking plasmoid sounds a bit like thinking zebras instead of horses when you hear hoofbeats.

If you want a really out there suggestion, how about one of Dr. Louis Franks's small fluffy comets that are supposed to hit the earth 20 times each hour? with your dark skies, and your frequency of viewing, you might be well placed to see one of those collisions everu couple of years.

[scotastro]

Talitha

Just found your post.

I think it is an aurora. Although under different circumstances I saw something similar. In Nov 2004 as an aurora I had been watching died away I saw a similar looking bright green blob in the south east - unlike yours my blob slowly rose higher in a curved path until it was due south when it disappeared. A similar blob then appeared in the south west, rose and again disappeared when due south. This was repeated over and over for about an hour.

Have not yet found an explaination.

I have dark skies in SW Scotland and before solar minimum regularly saw auroras when Spaceweather.com or other sites where showing very low to zero activity.

Scotastro

[Talitha]

From what I understand WH, plasmoids have a connection with the Earth's magnetosphere just like the Aurora does, and it makes me wonder if they'd show up on film bearing the same green signature color as the lower elevation Auroral displays do.

The comet idea sounds interesting, but on 27 Sept 1998 the patch faded and re-appeared in the same area of the sky. The Aurora sometimes does that, but the charts and graphs were completely flat-lined that night.. that's why this thing still puzzles me.

Another member of my Auroral group has since taken pics of a rogue Auroral patch, but at least there was some minor (albeit very northern) activity on the charts for the night he captured the images.

Thanks for your input, Scotastro. (I was just about to post my reply to WH when the warning popped up that there had been another reply.) The difference between our sightings is that yours occurred after you had already been watching a display, which means there was definitely activity that night. The conditions were similar when my friend captured the true rogue Auroral patches.

But there was absolutely no activity the night I took the image. The Kp was down to zero (even in the Arctic regions) and the Bz was also at zero. At my adjusted geomagnetic latitude, I'd need a Kp of at least 4 and a minimum Bz of -5 to detect a faint green glow on the northern horizon. Everything was dead that night except for the small patch.. very puzzling to say the least.

:scratch:

[jgs001]

An interesting image Carol, no idea what it is though

[Talitha]

Thanks John, I know what it is.. a mystery.