Solar and Aurora Activity Chat

[Mesosphere]

got what i think is the aurora here. About 60-70 degrees high due north, almost at the zenith. Curtains of faint, greyish light, look like cirrus but somehow i don't think they are. Very diffuse green glow to the north east for a time also

[Mesosphere]

Lovely display, loads of reports coming in from up and down the country. Also unconfirmed reports of aurora in Germany!

[Polar Maritime]

The auroral oval predictions are for slightly lower latitudes than the one from the same time last night. I stayed up until 2am i witnessed a green/blue in the distant horizon so im pretty chuffed, but it was not strong enough to get any shots. I will just have to suffer now on a Monday on only having 2/3 hours..... hey ho

Here is a shot off the net

The Aurora Australis from Tinderbox, Tasmania. Photo taken on July 16, 2012 by Jonathan Esling.

View on Flickr: http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream

Edited July 16, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS: A remarkably long-lasting geomagnetic storm is in progress as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from a CME strike on July 14th. Sky watchers in Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska and northern-tier US states from Maine to Washington should watch for auroras after nightfall.Observing tip: The hours around local midnight are usually best for aurora-spotting. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

When the CME first arrived on July 14th, its effect appeared weak. However, conditions in the wake of the CME soon become stormy. On July 15-16 Northern Lights appeared in the United States as far south as Oregon, Colorado, Missouri,Utah, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota,Nebraska, Michigan and Arkansas. Travis Novitsky sends this picture from Grand Portage, Minnesota:

"Anticipating the CME's arrival on Saturday, I planned an Aurora Party with my girlfriend and a couple of friends," says Novitsky. "Just after midnight the sky erupted and suddenly we were surrounded by the shimmering, dancing lights. The intense activity continued through the rest of the night until the first light of dawn started to creep into the sky. Certainly one of the most amazing aurora nights I've ever witnessed in northern Minnesota!"

Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, the aurora australis has been sighted inNew Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, and directly above the South Pole itself. Visit our aurora gallery for a complete set of images:

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

THE SOURCE OF THE DISPLAY: Big sunspot AR1520, the source of the X-flare that instigated this weekend's auroras, can attract observers even without exploding. During a quiet moment yesterday in France, it showed itself at sunset:

Photographer VegaStar Carpentier took the picture on July 15th overlooking an island near the Coast of Marseilles.

The behemoth sunspot has a beta-gamma-delta magnetic field that harbors energy for more X-class solar flares. The odds of a geoeffective eruption are decreasing, however, as the sunspot turns toward Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-flares and a 15% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.Spaceweather.com

[Polar Maritime]

South Ayrshire Scotland.

East Lothian Scotland

Edited July 16, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[shuggee]

Bah.

Glad you saw it Calum

[Aaron]

Aurora over Kent last night too.

I had no idea the aurora was visible last night though.. whenever this happens I am completely oblivious so always miss it! Gr..

Edited July 16, 2012 by Aaron

[Polar Maritime]

SUBSIDING STORM: The geomagnetic storm of July 14th through 16th is subsiding. Solar wind conditions are trending toward quiet, and Earth's magnetic field is responding by settling down. The remarkable 36-hour event was triggered by a CME impact on July 14th around 11 am PDT (1800 UT).

When the CME first arrived on July 14th, its effect appeared weak. However, conditions in the wake of the CME soon become stormy. On July 14-16 Northern Lights appeared in the United States as far south as Oregon, California, Colorado,Missouri, Utah, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Michigan and Arkansas. Travis Novitsky sends this picture from Grand Portage, Minnesota:

"Anticipating the CME's arrival on Saturday, I planned an Aurora Party with my girlfriend and a couple of friends," says Novitsky. "Just after midnight the sky erupted and suddenly we were surrounded by the shimmering, dancing lights. The intense activity continued through the rest of the night until the first light of dawn started to creep into the sky. Certainly one of the most amazing aurora nights I've ever witnessed in northern Minnesota!" Aurora alerts: text, voice.

Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, the aurora australis has been sighted inNew Zealand, Tasmania, and directly above the South Pole itself. Visit our aurora gallery for a complete set of images:Spaceweather.com

Display over Gibsons, British Columbia - by Allen Snowdon VE7OKO

Pine City, Minnesota Aurora - by Carlton McMillan K5CJM

Aurora Australis in New Zealand - by Tony Travaglia ZL4BHX
Edited July 16, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

[Coast]

Breathtaking photos of northern lights show that solar storm only helped brighten the night sky

Stunning photos show how a solar storm had a remarkably beautiful effect on the northern lights this weekend. A solar storm that arrived Saturday morning and lasted through Sunday slammed into Earth's magnetic field, prompting the already-striking colours to be heightened. The solar activity spawned colourful northern lights as the charged particles bombard Earth's outer magnetic field.

Though the idea of a solar storm initially sounds troubling, scientists were quick to reassure the public that it would not cause electrical problems as some feared. 'This isn't the mother of all anything,' said forecaster Joe Kunches at the government's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. 'We don't see any ill effects to any systems.' That said, they did take some precautionary measures to make sure that nothing went wrong.

Authorities alerted power grid operators, airlines and others to the potential for extreme activity but did not expect anything more than a minor event. Juha-Pekka Luntama, a space weather expert at the European Space Agency, said utility and navigation operators 'will certainly see something but they will probably find ways to deal with any problems' from the incoming storm. The storm began Thursday when the sun unleashed a massive flare that hurled a cloud of highly charged particles racing toward Earth at 3 million mph.

It was the sixth time this year that such a powerful solar outburst has occurred; none of the previous storms caused major problems. The storm is part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle of solar activity, which is supposed to reach peak storminess next year.

Sunspot: AR1520, which is 200,000 miles long, is expected to give off troublesome flares for the next week

http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz20rU0OtV1

[Polar Maritime]

ELECTRIC AURORAS: Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from the CME strike of July 14th. This morning, July 17th, at 1:00 am CDT, Shawn Malone witnessed one of the aftershocks over Lake Superior:

SpaceWeather.com

[Polar Maritime]

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5skYDV8xx0&list=UUIp0KTgnQNZJIOQZqrVDw1g&index=1&feature=plcp

According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Venus on July 19th and could deliver a glancing blow to Earth on July 20th. Spaceweather.com

Edited July 17, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

SLOW EXPLOSION: Sunspot complex AR1520-1521 erupted on July 17th, producing an M1-class flare that unfolded slowly over a period of hours. Slow explosions often produce CMEs, and this one was no exception. Click on the image to view a movie of the bright, massive cloud recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:

According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Venus on July 19th and could deliver a glancing blow to Earth on July 20th. The impact could re-energize but not rival the spectacular light show of July 14th through 16th.

Spaceweather.com

[knocker]

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare on July 19, 2012, beginning at 1:13 AM EDT and peaking at 1:58 AM. Solar flares are gigantic bursts of radiation that cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to harm humans on the ground, however, when strong enough, they can disrupt the atmosphere and degrade GPS and communications signals.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News071912-M7.7flare.html

[Polar Maritime]

ALMOST X-FLARE : Sunspot complex AR1520-1521 erupted again on July 19th, this time producing an M7-class solar flare that almost crossed the threshold into X-territory. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:

The explosion produced a bright coronal mass ejection: movie. The cloud should miss Earth.

Although the explosion occured on the other side of the sun's western limb, our planet could feel some effects. The blast site is magnetically connected to Earth bybackward-spiralling lines of magnetic force. Protons accelerated by the flare are being guided to us by those lines of magnetism, and a mild radiation storm isunderway.http://www.spaceweather.com/

Edited July 19, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

Aurora Over Antarctica: a “Teardrop From Heavenâ€

This stunning photo of the Aurora Australis, set against a backdrop of the Milky Way, was captured from one of the most remote research locations on the planet: the French-Italian Concordia Base, located located at 3,200 meters (nearly 10,500 feet) altitude on the Antarctic plateau, 1,670 km (1,037 miles) from the geographic south pole.

The photo was taken on July 18 by resident doctor and scientist Dr. Alexander Kumar and his colleague Erick Bondoux.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/96369/aurora-over-antarctica-a-teardrop-from-heaven/#ixzz216gph5J3

[Polar Maritime]

A fantastic time laps here with some spectacular Auroras from last week.

http://vimeo.com/45858333

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]

A TASTE OF SOLAR MAX: Forecasters say solar maximum is still a year away. Earlier this month sky watchers got a taste of things to come when a powerful flare sparked Northern Lights over the United States as far south as Arkansas, Colorado and California.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Polar Maritime]

First images from High Resolution Coronal Imager or Hi-C launched last week just started coming in.

Hi-C telescope was launched on July 11, 2012 aboard a NASA sounding rocket and has captured the highest-resolution images ever taken of the sun’s million-degree atmosphere called the corona. The clarity of the images can help scientists better understand the behavior of the solar atmosphere and its impacts on Earth’s space environment.

“These revolutionary images of the sun demonstrate the key aspects of NASA’s sounding rocket program, namely the training of the next generation of principal investigators, the development of new space technologies, and scientific advancements,†said Barbara Giles, director for NASA’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA's High Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, captured the highest-resolution images ever taken of the sun's corona in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength. Shown in green to enhance detail, Hi-C's images reveal detailed tangles of magnetic field, channeling the solar plasma into a range of complex structures. Hi-C's resolution is five times more detailed than the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly flying aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. AIA can see structures on the sun's surface with clarity of approximately 675 miles and observes the sun in ten wavelengths of light. Hi-C observed features down to roughly 135 miles and observed the sun in just one wavelength. The clarity of the images will help scientists better understand the behavior of the solar atmosphere and its impacts on Earth's space environment. (NASA)

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/hic.html

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]

[Polar Maritime]