{"id":799303,"date":"2025-11-21T07:04:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799303"},"modified":"2025-11-21T07:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:04:28","slug":"these-weird-aurora-blobs-are-rare-proton-auroras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799303","title":{"rendered":"These weird aurora blobs are rare proton auroras"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | These green aurora blobs in front of the more distant red and green forms are proton auroras. The images on this page of the rare form of aurora are all from southern Wisconsin during the geomagnetic storm of November 11, 2025. Image via EarthSky\u2019s Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Science matters. Wonder matters. You matter.<\/strong>
Join our 2025 Donation Campaign today.<\/p>\n

Weird aurora blobs appeared during November\u2019s geomagnetic storm<\/h3>\n

It was a chilly night in southern Wisconsin on November 11, 2025, as I (Kelly Kizer Whitt) watched red and green auroras stretching up from the northern horizon. And as I observed, I noticed some strange, pulsating blobs of light materialize right in front of me. In the days preceding the geomagnetic storm, the sun had unleashed a barrage of X flares, and now the ejected plasma was smashing into our atmosphere. I have seen many auroral displays before, including last year\u2019s unforgettable events on May 10 and October 10, but on this night the aurora took on weird shapes.<\/p>\n

The auroral display was strong enough on November 11 that I could easily see the colors of the auroras with just my eyes. During less energetic displays, the color really only appears through the aid of photos. While I was marveling at the red and green display, grayish-white blobs appeared in front and closer to me, obscuring the background aurora. These blobs became so bright that there was no need to adjust your eyes to the dark before they popped into view. But it was only through the photos I took with my iPhone that I saw the green color.<\/p>\n

These strange, bright auroras were proton auroras. Proton auroras are not ordinary auroras. They generally only appear during very strong geomagnetic storms.<\/p>\n

Proton auroras explained<\/h3>\n

Proton auroras are different from ordinary auroras. Ordinary auroras could also be termed electron auroras. They occur because charged particles from the sun (mainly electrons) impact Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Those charged particles get funneled down Earth\u2019s magnetic field toward the poles. Then they collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere and excite them. Excited electrons emit light, and this is what we see when we\u2019re viewing the aurora.<\/p>\n

But proton auroras are different. According to Spaceweather.com, proton auroras come from a ring of protons that drifts around Earth. During especially strong geomagnetic storms, protons can rain down from this ring. They then cause a secondary shower of electrons, and these hit Earth\u2019s atmosphere to make proton auroras.<\/p>\n

According to LiveScience, proton auroras can occur at lower latitudes than the northern and southern lights. It also says that proton auroras can eat away at the ozone layer, causing large holes. No word yet if the proton auroras from November 11 created any holes in the ozone layer.<\/p>\n

In 2022, scientists discovered that Mars has proton auroras.<\/p>\n

Gallery of proton auroras<\/h3>\n
\"Reddish
The proton auroras came closer than the red and light green auroras that stayed farther to the north. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reddish
The aurora blobs were constantly moving and changing shape. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reddish
These green blobs appeared brighter than the reddish curtain of the aurora. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reddish
The author watched as this aurora blob grew in brightness. In person, the aurora blobs looked more gray and white. But the distant red and green colors did appear colorful to the eye alone. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Red
The red aurora grew until it was eventually overhead from southern Wisconsin on November 11, 2025. The green arc at bottom started as a blob and seemed to tear itself apart, mutating into different shapes until it looked like a bird in flight. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reddish
A proton aurora between the cloud bank and red aurora above. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bottom line: On November 11, 2025, the severe geomagnetic storm produced weird aurora blobs along with traditional auroras. These blobs were rare proton auroras.<\/p>\n

Read more: Amazing aurora photos capture the \u2018sky on fire\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt<\/h4>\n

View Articles\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n
About the Author:<\/h6>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | These green aurora blobs in front of the more distant red and green forms are proton auroras. The images on this page of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":799304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-799303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/799304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}