That Which Glows Above and Below Oregon Coast – And Something New

Published 10/16/24 at 4:30 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Waldport, Oregon) – It's been a season of Aurora Borealis in this Pacific Northwest region, and one no one's going to forget anytime soon. Yet there's more to things that glow along the Washington and Oregon coast – delightfully strange things that are equally as wondrous if you encounter them. (What's happening here? Something new - see below. Details from photos by Steven Smith / Solution 7 Media)

And then there's aspects of the Aurora Borealis you didn't even know about.

Two photographers along the Oregon coast recently captured a lot of these intense surprises, creating two tales of remarkable discovery.

It all starts a bit before October 6 (that day the big auroras surprised all of us). Steven Smith of Solution 7 Media has hit the north coast again doing astrophotography. At one point, he's at the south jetty of the Columbia River and realizes he's seeing stuff glow down below. The sand and the surf are sparkling: tiny bits of green / blue flashes.

Steven Smith / Solution 7 Media

“Sparkling sand and all,” he said.

It's bioluminescent phytoplankton. They glow like fireflies, using a biochemical reaction (not chemical – it's sometimes mislabeled as phosphorescence.) To see it in the surf with the naked eye is rather rare. Smith captures all this wonderfully with this downright esoteric shot of the Peter Iredale wreck near Warrenton. The waves are aglow. The Milky Way stretches up and over the old ship. See Bioluminescent Phytoplankton: What Makes Glowing Sand On Oregon Coast, Washington

And all around that is the rather unknown “green glow” of the nighttime.

That, ironically, is a relative of the aurora borealis and going on all the time. In fact, it will somewhat ruin all night photography for you once you notice it: it's always there and now you can't unsee it. See what the green glow at night is. Green Nightglow Above Us All the Time, You Just Didn't Know: Washington / Oregon Coast Science 

Steven Smith / Solution 7 Media

Then, on October 10, Smith is one of thousands out there who snap unbelievable shots of the aurora borealis. Yet he captures something a little different. This one at Cannon Beach is certainly one of the more striking ones out there from this season of aurora, but there's two science discoveries lurking in this shot.

One: note the large white streak. It's called STEVE, short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, an aspect of the aurora you likely didn't know existed. In fact, it's rarely seen – but can only be spotted during an aurora with heavy solar activity like this.

According to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), they “are a phenomenon similar to their more well-known cousins Aurora Borealis and Australis. STEVE is caused by a ribbon of hot gases rather than particles like electrons and protons like the auroras.”

Two: check out how the background sky has a red tint to it. There's more to the red here than just the soaring curtains. It's another rarity called Stable Aurora Red (SAR), which is characterized by a faint but steady reddish glow. It's not dramatic to the eye, but if you know what you're looking at it's rather special. It's a part of the aurora phenomenon that happens higher in the sky and is a testament to how heavy the event is.

On top of it, Smith also captured a few little shooting stars.

Jacklyn Larsen Photography : Heceta Head Lighthouse below the aurora

For Jacklyn Larsen, the surprise turned out to be a bit of a birthday gift. October 6, the internet quickly started lighting up with reports of Northern Lights all over, although the alerts from Space Weather Prediction Center didn't seem super positive in the days leading up.

“It was my birthday, so I was spending time celebrating with my family, and didn't want to leave early,” Larsen said. “As it got later and everyone dispersed, I checked a few of the reports and predictions about the aurora activity to see if it was still appearing to be active. It was, and at 11:30pm I set out to try to find them. Thankfully that evening I was able to find several locations without fog, including the lookout just south of Heceta Head Lighthouse.”

There, just north of Florence, the aurora borealis was putting on quite a show. Yet she was surprised to find herself the only one shooting out there in the dark.

“Some of the glow of the aurora, including the light pillars were even visible to the naked eye at times,” she said “I was grateful to spend the last minutes of my birthday watching the colorful skies above the lighthouse. What a gift!”

Jacklyn Larsen Photography

A few short days later the lights appeared again and Larsen snagged some gems on the central Oregon coast, around Waldport. You can see stunning timelapse here.

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