HUGE!! CME just went off!

reply to post by Blaine91555


The last couple of months there have been some great Aurora shows.

www.spaceweather.com...

Here in Norway the aurora is so strong i can se the lights trough the tick skies. It blends together. Really creepy. The sky is red with orange light

Hordaland 63 degres north

[edit on 5-5-2010 by lost artistic]

reply to post by lost artistic


its just like that here in England right now also.

just thought I may add that

reply to post by Phage


Yes, but we were hit by some large ones in 2001 -2002. No need to panic I'd think.

One of the biggest I remember was in 1973. I saw a red aurora in southern California in fact. Got off work at a truck stop at about 3 in the morning, looked up and there was a long ribbon of red overhead. Asked about it at the University the next day and almost nobody noticed because of the time of night.

Yeah looking at some of the other ones in the archives, this one seems like no big deal at all.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I just checked the forecast and they are only in the 2 to 3 range. Visible in the far north only. To much daylight now anyway, except at about 1:30 in the morning. They show it down to zero by Friday.

The last few years you had to go to Fairbanks to see any at all its been so quiet.

I love watching them.

Originally posted by lost artistic
Here in Norway the aurora is so strong i can se the lights trough the tick skies. It blends together. Really creepy. The sky is red with orange light

Hordaland 63 degres north

[edit on 5-5-2010 by lost artistic]

Cool, I love those kind of nights. The first time I saw a huge display, I stood outside at 10 below Fahrenheit and looked up until I had a stiff neck and nearly ended up with frostbite. I just stood there for two hours watching a horizon to horizon display.

Looks like Canada is getting some good displays if they hold up a few more hours. Sunset is still a few hours away for most of Canada and all of Alaska.

reply to post by apacheman


not directed at earth - the side of disc cme/ flares (i know this is an oversimplification) are usually not.

its the ones "face on" that i've watched for many years on spaceweather.com to be the ones that travel in our general direction. we did get hit by a large geomagnetic storm sparking auroras yesterday though.

from Spacweather:

ACTIVE SUNSPOT: New sunspot 1069 is growing rapidly (movie) and crackling with C-class solar flares. Located near the sun's northwestern limb, the sunspot is by far the most active region on the sun. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

RIOTOUS AURORAS: A solar wind gust hit Earth's magnetic field on May 2nd and triggered the longest-lasting geomagnetic storm of the year (so far).

[edit on 5/5/2010 by drphilxr]

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by Blaine91555

 

The last couple of months there have been some great Aurora shows.

www.spaceweather.com...

Unfortunately we only get to see the strongest ones in Anchorage due to light pollution, clouds and haze when we do get clear skies. I've been wanting to spend a few nights north of Fairbanks in the winter but the activity has been to low. Maybe this next year. Hard to get a room though as the tourists from Japan keep them booked for the Aurora's.

does that mean my cell phone won't work. i have to log off now im going to hide in my bomb shelter 150 ft beneath the earth. please post regular updates when this threat has been neutralized as i will be resurfacing every 4 hrs to check my account.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Ahh fair enough.

Well hopefully you get some good shows in the coming months.

From Spaceweather.com : www.spaceweather.com...

Scientists classify solar flares according to their x-ray brightness in the wavelength range 1 to 8 Angstroms. There are 3 categories: X-class flares are big; they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Minor radiation storms sometimes follow an M-class flare. Compared to X- and M-class events, C-class flares are small with few noticeable consequences here on Earth.

You can tell if a flare is headed for earth if it expands equally around the edges of the sun. If it is off to one side, it will go somewhere else.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by apacheman

 

this one is extraordinarily large

It really isn't...

Good Point.

Originally posted by Blaine91555

In 2001 - 2002 we had wonderful displays. I'm in Alaska. The best I've ever seen was in 2001. Covered the sky, horizon to horizon. One was even seen all the way to Arizona. Way bigger than anything you folks have been looking at the last few years.

Yes, apparently the largest solar flare ever recorded occurred at 4:51 p.m. EDT, on Monday, April 2, 2001. as Observed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. So that makes sense



Has anything else larger been recorded?

so? so whats going to happen? are we going to burn because of this?

I have no idea beyond what I read on SOHO or the Aurora Sites. That one in April 2001 we did not see as its really to late in the year about then. It's just to light at night here. Right now sunset is about 10:20 PM and sunrise is about 5:30 AM. Twilight lasts a couple of hours either way. Oddly enough, you have to be further south this time of year, like in Canada and they have to be large displays. Fairbanks for instance gets down to about 1 and a half hours from sunset to sunrise.

The biggest I saw was earlier. It might have been about December 2000 in fact. My poor old braincells are not what they used to be. At that time I had a cabin outside the city so I saw wonderful displays in crystal clear skies.

Originally posted by DOADOA
so? so whats going to happen? are we going to burn because of this?

No, you can sleep well tonight. Moderate activity at best.

I was on the HF bands talking to a friend in Texas when a BUNCH of people came in all of a sudden. The band opening on HF is wide open now for all of you fellow amateur radio operators

reply to post by dplum517


Holee Cow! I thought the X class in 2003 was a lulu. (red glow as far south as Houston)
Hoping for this again.
While not that big, this current one is nothing to sneeze at.