Solar and Aurora Activity Chat

[Polar Maritime]

The sun is very quiet today, has almost flat lined.....

[Gavin Hannah]

44 sunspots..... is it even awake?

[Polar Maritime]

The sun is pretty much dead today.....

[lorenzo]

Brilliantly eccentric video PM.

Figs !

[Polar Maritime]

MASSIVE SOLAR PROMINENCE: Today, a huge arc of plasma-filled magnetism is rising over the sun's western limb. "It's more than 30 Earth diameters long," says amateur astronomer John Stetson, who this morning photographed the structure backlit by the blue skies of Falmouth, Maine:

Here is what the prominence looks like through the telescopes of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: image.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

zzzzzz....

Edited September 15, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

Activity still very low this morning...

[Polar Maritime]

A couple of low C flares today, other than that it's gone very quiet again...

[Polar Maritime]

AUTUMN LIGHTS: Northern autumn is only days away, and that means aurora season is underway. For reasons researchers don't fully understand, equinoxes are the best times to see Northern Lights--especially around the Arctic Circle. Aurora tour guide Chad Blakley photographed this first sign of autumn from Abisko National Park on Sweden on Sept 14th:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Gavin Hannah]

51 sunspots today.

[Polar Maritime]

INCOMING ACTIVE REGIONS: Solar activity has been low for more than a week. This could change in the days ahead as a pair of active regions rotates onto the Earthside of the sun. http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Polar Maritime]

March 10th 2011, a memorable night. Fantastic red colors in these amazing outbreaks on the beginning of the evenig March 10th. This however was not a planned shot, I was actually shooting in the other direction out a fjord. But knowing how auroras can bee, you have to have eyes in your neck also. But when looking behind my back this time, I was shocked when I saw the colorful large rays of light at display.

I just had to turn around my camera, compose quickly, using the barn and the house up the hill behind me, and fire away.

Man I am happy I got to experience this! Shot at Ulsfjord, close to Tromsø, Northern Norway.

Hope you like it,

Best,

Ole

Copyright: Ole Christian Salomonsen

[Polar Maritime]

AUTUMN LIGHTS: Northern autumn is only days away, and that means aurora season is underway. For reasons researchers don't fully understand, equinoxes are the best times to see Northern Lights. The show is well underway at Summit Station, an NSF-sponsored research facility on top of the Greenland ice sheet, where Ed Stockard snapped this photo on Sept. 17th:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

"Autumn Fireball"

The biggest fireball I have ever catched on camera, and probably ever will. This was a great photographic moment for me!

This shot was taken tonight sept20th, a night full of awesome auroras in magnifcent shapes and colors. This shot was far from the one with the most auroras in from tonight, still a magnificent fireaball, reflected, above my favorite mountain "Otertinden", 90min drive from Tromsø, deserves to go out first. Awesome autumnal colors in the forest and a completely silent river in front.



The fireball lasted for about 6-7seconds until it vanished behind the mountain, by the way this mountain is over 1200meters high, so do not
be fooled by the 14mm wide angle lens! There was some very distinguished blue colors surrounding the fireballs edges. Never ever seen anything big like this!

Hope you like the shot, and if you do, please share it with the world!

More shots to come soon from this evening, stay tuned!
Shot with a Canon EOS 1DX + Nikon 14-24 lens.
Best,
Ole

© Ole C Salomonsen

Edited September 20, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

http://vimeo.com/49847218

[Polar Maritime]

QUIET SUN: Considering the fact that 2012 is thought to be on the threshold of solar maximum, the sun is strangely quiet. None of the spots on the solar disk is actively flaring, continuing a weeks-long pattern of low activity. http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Polar Maritime]

zzzz...

[Gavin Hannah]

I think the sun could very well be entering it's next quiet/hibernation stage. Guess we won't know for sure until after the next minimum which will prolong the current sleep mode.

[Gavin Hannah]

46 Sunspots today. Activity dropping off further.

[Polar Maritime]

SLIGHT CHANCE OF FLARES: NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% to 15% chance of M-class solar flares during the next 24 hours. The likely source would be sunspot AR1575, near the center of the solar disk. The odds are low, but if a flare occurs in AR1575, it will be Earth-directed.http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Gavin Hannah]

FARSIDE EXPLOSION: An active region on the farside of the sun exploded on Sept. 23rd, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection over the sun's eastern limb.Orbiting at the L1 Lagrange Point, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the expanding cloud:

The cloud is not heading for Earth. Nor is any other planet in the line of fire. In a few days, however, the sun's rotation will turn the blast site toward Earth. After that, eruptions could become geoeffective.

[Polar Maritime]

FARSIDE EXPLOSION: An active region on the farside of the sun exploded on Sept. 23rd, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection over the sun's eastern limb.Orbiting at the L1 Lagrange Point, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the expanding cloud:

The cloud is not heading for Earth. Nor is any other planet in the line of fire. In a few days, however, the sun's rotation will turn the blast site toward Earth. After that, eruptions could become geoeffective.

Its always polite to pop the link in from "spaceweather" for copywrite purposes.

[Gavin Hannah]

Ah forgot to put that in.

http://www.spaceweather.com

[Polar Maritime]

A minor C flare a few hours ago just dropping off now. Activity had picked up a "little" over the last 24hrs.

[Polar Maritime]

Sunspot numbers up to 121 now...

EMERGING BLAST SITE: A farside sunspot that exploded and hurled a bright CME into space on Sept. 23rd is now rotating onto the Earthside of the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the emerging blast site during the early hours of Sept. 26th:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Polar Maritime]

The strongest flare for some time (in the high C category....) is just starting to drop off now.

NOAA have given a 20% chance of M class flares today from sunspot AR1575 which is facing Earth for geoeffective eruptions.

POLAR LIGHTS: A medium-speed (~450 km/s) solar wind stream is brushing against Earth's magnetic field, sparking intermittent auroras around the Arctic Circle. Frank Olsen photographed these colorful streamers over Sortland, Norway, during the early hours of Sept. 27th:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

Edited September 27, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Polar Maritime]

Just amazing...

"Signal-River"

Another shot from the night of sept.20th. On my way home at 2am, on a night with fantastic auroras, I was forced to make a short stop by a river called Signalelva at Oteren, northern-Norway. Here you can see why, a magnificent display with strong red auroras clearly visible at the top. Facing south-east here, so this one was probably visible way down over Finland and Sweden as well..

If you like this shot feel free to share it.

Best,

Ole

Ole C Salomonsen

Edited September 27, 2012 by Polar Maritime