There was an amazing auroral display here in Chicagoland in what? ... 2007? something like that. It was noted in the papers, but I never saw anything reported that matched what I saw. I kept going outside to check periodically, and on one of these occasions, I saw what appeared to be huge bright sinuous beams, extending from horizon to horizon, and undulating on a subsecond time scale. It was absolutely mind boggling. Of course, they weren’t actual beams, but really the bottom edge of a “curtain”.
I’ve never gotten over the scant attention that this got, but that’s the way news works. Aurora? Ok, aurora.
The curtain effect is nice, however the multi-colored ribbons that undulate and dance across the heavens are absolutely phenomenal.