APOD 1.4: Aurora Over Maine

 

Earlier this month active sunspots rotated into view and unleashed a series of solar flares and plasmas into the Solar System. In particular, a pair of Coronal Mass Ejections  (CMEs) entered the Earth's magnetosphere toward the end of last week, creating the most intense geomagnetic storm (a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field which interacts with the Earth's magnetic field) so far this year. the plasma clouds traveled all the way down to Wisconsin and the northern lights were viewed over Acadia National Park in Maine.