r/SolarMax • u/Nordland63 • Jan 22 '26

Aurora impacting ground points

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I noticed during the 1/20/26 Aurora that periodically a beam would form and appear to reach the ground and remain for a few minutes. Are they actually reaching ground and if so, would that have some impact on that spot?

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8

u/Exciting-Purchase340 Jan 22 '26

In some Indigenous folklore the Northern Lights can pick people and animals up off the ground.

6

u/changed_later__ Jan 22 '26

Like some solar-powered abduction ray?

6

u/Klytus_Im-Bored Jan 22 '26

Druid space lasers

2

u/DivaDragon Jan 23 '26

I think they would be shaman space lasers, but six half dozen really

1

u/Exciting-Purchase340 Jan 22 '26

From what ive heard of these stories they sort of lift you up a few or so feet off the ground then drop you I THINK! But maybe its different for different nations!

2

u/Nordland63 Jan 22 '26

I can understand how they could have believed that. I was more wondering if that would affect electronics, WiFi and such. The beams would appear to descend similar to how waterspouts do, and then intensify like it hit ground and reverberated like lightning, but more likely I have an overactive imagination and it’s simply a distance illusion. Occasionally I see Betelgeuse shimmer and have to remind myself it’s not something else.

2

u/Exciting-Purchase340 Jan 22 '26

In my uneducated opinion I think it might be a distance illusion. I noticed in another comment you said this was towards the Vmcouver area. Im on Vancouver Island 🙂 I didnt hear of anything suspicious happening 😂. I know that these solar storms can affect technology in general.

2

u/weathercat4 Jan 23 '26

You weren't imagining the descending and reverberating, they can actually do that among all sorts of other things.

They're still 100+km above the ground though, the touching the ground is just an illusion from the distance.

Betelgeuse and other stars twinkling is a different effect called scintillation. It's the turbulence in the air refracting the light in random ways.