By the time night fell over North America, the geomagnetic storm was beginning to subside, but not before auroras were spotted in at least 23 states. Reports poured in from as far south as Florida and as far west as Utah. We weren't disappointed. In the Big Bend region of Texas, observers at the McDonald Observatory were surprised when the sky suddenly turned red during a star party. Please see the gallery of images , below.
Auroral light is similar to the light from a color television.
During a display of aurora borealis, the air glows as charged particles rain down from space along Earth's magnetic field lines. The resulting color depends on the type of molecules that the charged particles hit. The electrons and protons that rain down on our atmosphere to produce colorful Northern Lights don't come directly from the solar wind. The magnetotail is an area of space behind the night side of Earth where the solar wind stretches the magnetic field into a long comet-like tail. Although it's more than 60,000 km away, what happens in the plasma sheet is crucial to auroral activity.