It's the strongest geomagnetic storm since 2005 to be exact.
It had been anticipated that six to seven coronal mass ejections were headed straight towards Earth.
Well before sunset, I was intrigued by a pattern of white wispy clouds that appeared motionless and strangely frozen in time.
The clouds were higher in the sky than the contrails of a jet airliner that passed beneath them.
I reckon that calm conditions in the upper atmosphere contributed towards the unusual sightings of the aurora at such southerly latitudes.
Now I gotta put my socks and shoes on to go outside and look. "
The storm could produce northern lights as far south in the U.S. as Alabama and Northern California, according to NOAA. But it was hard to predict and experts stressed it would not be the dramatic curtains of color normally associated with the northern lights, but more like splashes of greenish hues."
Alabama is "next door" to Atlanta.
https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-wor...hern-lights-in-us/K26YTORXXFFFTAMWSTDSZD2V2M/
The storm could produce northern lights as far south in the U.S. as Alabama and Northern California, according to NOAA. But it was hard to predict and experts stressed it would not be the dramatic curtains of color normally associated with the northern lights, but more like splashes of greenish hues."
Alabama is "next door" to Atlanta.
https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-wor...hern-lights-in-us/K26YTORXXFFFTAMWSTDSZD2V2M/
Went outside for a few minutes, I see a new moon lower on the horizon, and almost overhead (through a hole in the trees) four stars that I recognize as the bowl of the Big Dipper. Seeing those, I at least know it's not overcast, but there's no hint of any kind of aurora light.
So I come in and check Twitter, which has been chock full of aurora posts, but now there's THIS one taunting me!
So I come in and check Twitter, which has been chock full of aurora posts, but now there's THIS one taunting me!
And to be sure, that's not me looking for "aurora" on Twitter, that's just one of the peeps I follow.
Some interesting history. Here's hoping the power grid holds up.
That, in 1859, two telegraph operators found they could converse better without batteries, relying solely on the auroral current.
Unfortunately, your accompanying link is flagged as "currently unavailable in most European countries".
However, I can paste the Florida aurora photo contained within the tweet of your following post:
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The link is to Atlanta Journal/Constitution, and is an AP story titled:
Solar storm hits Earth, producing colorful light shows across Northern Hemisphere
Maybe this link will work:
https://apnews.com/article/solar-storm-flares-eruption-sun-fc23251025efc2d20dc128dc0b6a7c68
Regardles ... I was watching this about 1 hour into it (it's still live for me, maybe it stays on Youtube after being done) and they were saying there's a coronal ejection they believe will hit Earth 8PM Eastern Daylight Time, +/- a couple hours. 8PM is after sunset when things finally get decently dark, so I'll likely be outside looking for this tonight.
Solar storm hits Earth, producing colorful light shows across Northern Hemisphere
Maybe this link will work:
https://apnews.com/article/solar-storm-flares-eruption-sun-fc23251025efc2d20dc128dc0b6a7c68
Regardles ... I was watching this about 1 hour into it (it's still live for me, maybe it stays on Youtube after being done) and they were saying there's a coronal ejection they believe will hit Earth 8PM Eastern Daylight Time, +/- a couple hours. 8PM is after sunset when things finally get decently dark, so I'll likely be outside looking for this tonight.
The above link worked, benb. Thankfully, there appear to have been no major power outages because of the solar storm.
Quote: "The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth. It is all part of the solar activity ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle."
P.S. For those who don't know what a solar flare looks like, here's a handy illustration.
Quote: "The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth. It is all part of the solar activity ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle."
P.S. For those who don't know what a solar flare looks like, here's a handy illustration.
Just imagine if the Earth never had a mag field? AFAIK, the Earth is the only terrestrial body in the solar system that has one. Jupiter‘s however is huge to the extent that particles are accelerated by it so much, it makes the surfaces of its nearby moons quite uninhabitable. Juno required special precautions to deal with the issue.
Indeed! Apparently it had a mag field for the first few hundred to 1 billion yrs, and then it faded. The result is, in combination with the weak gravity, the atmosphere was stripped away. Musky et sl, blithely talk about settling Mars, but the surface is brutal due to UV radiation, and high velocity particles from the Sun. Those are problems that will need to be solved.
Because necessity is the mother of invention. The technology to keep Earth habitable will never be developed for that purpose. Too much money to be made by big shots keeping things the way they are. Technology developed for making Mars habitable might eventually be applied to keeping Earth habitable. But only after it’s generally available, and cheap.
I cannot understand the passion to this decade pollute Mars with E-coli and other bacteria & viruses. ie put men on Mars. I'd prefer a much more intense search for Mars origin life than has happened so far. Mars is not economicly liveable; lack of a magnetic field to stop corona mass ejections is just one hazard to human life.
I walked out to northern edge of my property 5/11 0030, the side that faces the Amish farm with no artificial lights. Northern Clark Cty IN. No aurora; a faint cloud bank that horizon. I had a clear view of Big Dipper and Vega overhead, but not Acturus. Out again at 0330 but only front porch of my trailer surrounded by trees but clear view of Big Dipper. No aurora.
Again trailer porch 0000 0200 and 0430 5/12, no Aurora. I did see aurora on Camp Ripley, MN in 1982 out on the range. From my pup tent on training maneuvers. North of Little Falls MN.
Looks like a giant sun with the edge way over on the right. Absolutely fantastic shot - where were you when you took it (country)?