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Another Solar Storm Approaching
RZG writes: "Aurora might be visible again across the mid-latitude portions of the U.S. and Europe, thanks to the CMEs (coronal mass ejections) associated with two powerful X class solar flares, and some smaller flares. The activity may begin in the next few hours, and last up to several days. The NOAA predicts another G3 class storm. Watch Spaceweather.com, the NOAA's space weather forcast, or this solar activity report for more information. The geomagnetic storm could cause power and satellite failures."
We had a "random" crash on our SQL server (which was running without a case) on tuesday when the solar flare happened. Is that a coincidence? Who knows. Still a bloody pain in the ass.
---
Play Six Pack Man. I
Apparently the G4's are in such short supply that they couldn't even get one for this.
Groan.....
Visit
This one is counter to our magnetic field. One of the reports on the original story's links points this out. I can't wait till night fall. I scouted out a few really dark fields around Minneapolis, MN where star watching is great. My plan is to plant myself at one of them with the wide field camera to catch the night skys.
What matters much is the polarity of the storm. IANA{astro-meteorolgist}, but I recall from a Discovery/Learning Channel show that a solar storm can be north or south polarized.
If it's in-line with Earth's magnetic field, it tends to just flow around the planet without causing any major issues,
If it's counter to our natural shielding, it causes spectacular light shows, messes with RF communication, disrupts electrical flow in the power grids (sags, spikes, outages), fries satellites, plays havoc with air traffic control and on-board aircraft systems, and causes people at high altitudes in the north polar regions (Canada and up) to see Yeti, Bigfoot and Elvis.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Being from Canada, the Aurora Borealis is nothing new to me, however, if this causes anything like the light shows we got here last summer, I'm not going to sleep until the storm is over.
I've never seen boreali that bright with that many colours. Another thing was the size of them, I'm used to seeing a few strands and trailers on the northernmost edge of the sky. Last summer though, it filled the entire northern hemisphere of the sky with writhing, glowing, hissing (yes, up here you can actually hear them) fire strands.
I can't think of a more impressive, beautiful sight. Not even the greatest sunset/rise came close to comparing to this. So if you want a really great show, book a trip up here to Calgary, or even better, some place further north like Edmonton or Ft. McMurray... this promises to be great.
The chains are broken
Loki is free
Ragnarok is at hand...
Yeah, but you forget that the van Allen belts will shield approximately 100% of that radiation. As long as you stay within a few hundred miles of Earth, you're ok... you ARE within a few hundred miles of Earth, right?
Eric
From the Astro Alert
Active sunspot region number 9026 spawned its third major X-class flare today. This one covered about as much area as yesterdays X2.3 flare, but was slightly less energetic at a class X1.2 x-ray intensity. Today's event also was associated with a coronal mass ejection, but the ejected mass was much more diffuse and difficult to spot. Nevertheless, it appears a second above-average velocity coronal mass ejection is now in-transit to the Earth. That disturbance will probably impact the Earth sometime on 10 June (early to mid UTC hours, perhaps). The impact of this second disturbance should be a bit less vigorous than the first disturbance that is due within the next 24 hours, but it may still be strong enough to renew minor geomagnetic and auroral storming through 10 and part of 11 June. The approach of the first high-velocity shock front from yesterdays X2 solar flare associated coronal mass ejection is currently visible in the form of increased densities of energetic protons in space near the Earth. These protons are thought to be accelerated by the shock front of the disturbance as it sweeps through space. Currently, energetic protons are reaching densities capable of producing intensified levels of ionization in the polar ionospheres of the Earth. This type of increased ionization is known as Polar Cap Absorption (or PCA) and can have a devastating impact on high frequency radio signals that propagate through the polar regions of the ionosphere. These energetic protons are not expected to decrease back toward background levels until after the shock front of the disturbance passes the Earth on 08 June. Most solar observatories are reporting that Region 9026, although it has lost some of it's areal coverage, has not changed signficantly in magnetic structure and is probably still capable of producing major M or X class solar flares. The frequency of minor and major flares from this region will probably begin to slacken off a bit over the next few days unless renewed growth occurs.
-- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."
The last time the sun was in it's peak flare zone like this was back in 1989. The sun has 11 years cycles of activity. It took out most of quebec's power grid almost 6 million people were without power for awhile.
Later
Solar wind is mostly ionised particles.
This is a solar wind storm, right?
Therefor, its an ION STORM...
ARRAGHG... KEEP THOSE CLICKING GREEN THINGS AWAY FROM ME...
*is carted off to daikatana rehab, and prescribed 2h of CounterStrike per night*
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
There is a nice basic article about this CME and how CMEs affect the magnetosphere at spacesciences.com. The New York Times is also carrying an AP story on the solar storm.
Preventive War is like committing suicide for fear of death. - Otto Von Bismarck
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/Aurora/index.html
BTW, looks like D.C. has a fair shot at this one.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
The ISTP site has a nice page that links to all the instruments that will be studying this in real-time. For those who want to watch the Ionosphere, try the SuperDARN Ionospheric Radars real-time page. (Gratuitious Plug - This is my page).
Perhaps now would be a good time to add my Solar Status Monitor as a slashbox.
Yep, gonna have GREAT propagation on the 28 MHz HF band today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Since we're already at the high point in Solar Flux, 10 meters has been open for long-distances, and with an event like this I should be able to get Europe, Middle East and Africa with about 100 watts power. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one-- Albert Einstein
Also watch http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ every day for the astronomy picture of the day (almost always interesting, and sometimes root window art)
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slashdot.sig (129323052 bytes).
Actually, the last time a solar storm this scale happened, in 1989 IIRC, people flying over the north pole (such as from northern Europe to the east coast of the USA) got something like 10,000 X-Rays worth of radiation. The van allen belts don't cover the areas around the magnetic poles.
Disclaimer: IANAAP (I Am Not An Astrophysicist)
Causation can cause correlation
The timing is just perfect, now I can blame all the new bugs in the monster project we're making on solar interference. The last excuse, e-mail viruses, no longer works. "Oh, it's normal that you can't see more data on that screen - IBM patented the More button, Microsoft patented the scroll bar, and there's an X-Class solar flare in progress!!
My blog
The ACE Real Time Solar Wind plots jumped from around 500km/s to 800km/s just before 9AM UTC (+0000). I can't wait to see what it will look like tonight.
as I do, you might enjoy this site. It gives a better format in my opinion that NOAA, but it is essentially the same data.
If you'd like to read more science-related stories stop by bottomquark, my science slash site.
GrnArrow
http://www.bottomquark.com
"The geomagnetic storm could cause power and satellite failures." or the flimsy plot of a thousand different sci-fi books/tv shows/movies...
I'm sure glad that they were able to pull SOHO out of its problems, it sure does make some nice observations.
Preventive War is like committing suicide for fear of death. - Otto Von Bismarck