This night was a battle with both cloud and a full moon, which was a shame given the strong geomagnetic storm in progress. We drove north from Reykjavik because it was simply too cloudy in the south-west. Fortunately, by Hvalfjörður there were some clear periods in the sky, although the cloud was continuously closing over the evening from the south and east. Clusters of rays were visible in the northern sky at 23:00 as we were driving out to our viewing location. Intensity increased over the evening and by 23:27 UTC there were fairly strong curtains of rayed aurora bands covering much of the visible sky to the north and west and extending overhead (Image 1). At 23:29 A more defined rayed band formed directly overhead and intensity increased again, with a lot of movement and some amazing swirls in the sky above us (Images 2 and 3).
After that the activity diminished in terms of intensity and structure, although much of the sky was still a weak green (what little could be seen between clouds and the full moon). Occasional rays were still visible in all directions including north, but without the intensity of earlier. There were also some bursts of moderate activity to the south around 00:40 UTC and it seems that the main band of aurora may have pushed further southwards in the geomagnetic storm based on what the magnetometers were reading and the aurora being seen well from the UK on this night. We lost our battle with cloud at 01:26 and went home.
Image 1. 23:27 UTC. Taken at: ISO = 1600, f/2.8 @ 14 mm, exposure = 7.5 sec. Looking west.
Image 2. 23:29 UTC. Taken at: ISO = 1600, f/2.8 @ 14 mm, exposure = 8 sec. Looking west.
Image 3. 23:34 UTC. Taken at: ISO = 1600, f/2.8 @ 14 mm, exposure = 10 sec. Looking south.
Image 4. 00:21 UTC. Taken at: ISO = 1600, f/2.8 @ 14 mm, exposure = 15 sec. Looking south.
Image 5. 00:41 UTC. Taken at: ISO = 1600, f/2.8 @ 14 mm, exposure = 8 sec. Looking south.
