[Lowfer] Interesting Aurora Effects

[John Andrews]

Last evening, I was driving home in central Massachusetts between 0115 
and 0130 UTC. Listening to the car radio, there was very strong and fast 
QSB on WBZ-AM (1030 kHz, 50kW, about 70 miles), which was quite unusual. 
Having seen aurora info from the night before on Spaceweather.com, I 
guessed that there might be a continuing aurora event.

With clouds and light rain, I wasn't going to be able see anything. I'd 
have had to drive to a dark site, had the weather been clear, as my 
neighbor has a night-long light show every night.

A check of Spaceweather.com showed that aurora was indeed in progress. 
They attributed it to CME arrivals, but I suspect the situation was more 
complicated, as there had been a significant rise in solar wind proton 
density earlier in the day, which usually accompanies a "coronal hole" 
flow. Indeed, flow from a large coronal hole was expected to arrive on 
the 24th-25th.

The period from 2300  to 0200 UTC was most affected here in New England, 
according to graphics of the polar auroral oval from last night. Looking 
at captures of Lowfer TAG (185.302 kHz, 130 miles to my Northeast), the 
maximum effect of the aurora was indeed during that time period. See:
http://www.w1tag.com/files/24MAR2023-1.gif  and
http://www.w1tag.com/files/24MAR2023-2.gif

Ignoring anything else on the screen except 185.302 (the other junk is 
from a neighborhood TV), the signal starts to spread around 2340 UTC, 
with maximum disturbance from 0040 to about 0100 UTC. The signal before 
and after that had less spread, but still showed rapid QSB during the 
key-downs. After 0115, there was a long fade that obscured details.

Interesting stuff! Had I been listening in the low HF area, I'm sure 
there would have been substantial auroral flutter, but it's fun to see 
the effects at LF.

John, W1TAG