Today's image is untitled and was photographed by Phil Ejercito.
If you were lucky enough to be outside and in a relatively dark location last night, you may have caught a glimpse of the aurora borealis that was lighting up the northern horizon, particularly in the couple of hours preceding midnight. Ejercito's photo, taken from the southern shores of Lake Mendota on the Howard Temin Lakeshore Path, depicts the aurora as seen over the lake; the bright ground-level lights on the right-hand side of the horizon are from the Dane County Regional Airport.
Several other photographers captured snaps of the aurora as seen throughout southwestern Wisconsin. This photo by Ting-Li Lin displays a similar perspective of the northern lights as Ejercito's, with University Bay of Lake Mendota and Picnic Point in the foreground. Then there's this photo, depicting the aurora as seen near Platteville. There is more discussion about the Thursday night lights on TDPF, with further comments published by Cori Schlegel.
The current forecast at spaceweather.com notes the aurora as seen widely through the upper Midwest, and suggests more may be visible tonight should the skies remain clear:
A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth yesterday and sparked a strong display of auroras. Another CME may be on the way. An X1-flare from sunspot 930 on Dec. 14th probably hurled a new cloud in our direction. (Confirmation from SOHO is pending.) If so, it would arrive on Dec. 16th and re-energize geomagnetic activity.
They also publish many more photos of the aurora, including others as seen in and around Madison.
There is a larger version of the photo in the gallery at right.
This is the latest entry of Madison Snaps: photos of Madison-area events and locations. The Isthmus group photo pool is the primary source for Madison Snaps, which are published here with the permission of individual contributors. If you are interested in having your photo eligible for Madison Snaps, please respond to the posting on the Flickr group page, or send a message. There is no compensation for Madison Snaps photos, which are © to the respective photographers.
