Sun Storm To Cause Massive Auroral Display

glengyron writes "SMH reports a major geomagnetic storm will cause a spectacular display of shimmering coloured lights in the night sky of the Southern Hemsiphere. Read more here or check out the press release from the Australian Space Weather Agency (pdf)."

Comments

Auroras

[Scott7477]

Here's the article: Night sky spectacular November 9, 2004 - 4:42PM A spectacular light show is expected to play across Australia's southern skies as a major geomagnetic storm rages above the earth's atmosphere this week. Many-hued shimmering and moving lights should appear in the night sky in the southern half of Australia over the next two nights, the Australian space weather agency, IPS Radio and Space Services, said. Since November 3, a massive sunspot has caused several explosions on the sun's surface, which have hit the earth's geomagnetic field and caused a major geomagnetic storm. "This storm is expected to continue for the next two to three days as material now in transit from the sun interacts with the geomagnetic field," IPS deputy general manager Phil Wilkinson said. "Reports of aurora have already been received from as far north as the Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in northern NSW." As well as creating a spectacular light display, the storm is likely to disturb the earth's upper atmosphere and interfere with technological systems including short wave or high frequency (HF) radio. "HF radio remains an important tool for communications and surveillance within Australia for defence, air and sea transport and emergency service groups," Dr Wilkinson said. Satellites may be damaged and aeromagnetic surveys could be adversely affected, he said, but the activity posed no direct threat to people on earth. I guess this means all the tinfoil hat wearers in the southern hemisphere can take them off for a couple of days.

Also a good show in the Northern Hemisphere

[xmas2003]

Not too shabby looking on the top half of the globe either as mentioned by the Seattle Times which includes a picture of Puget Sound lit up very nicely.

The article says it may go as far south as Oklahoma, but I haven't seen anything yet here in Colorado, although I did see some pretty nifty Aurora Borealis over Boulder, Colorado last year.

Re:Also a good show in the Northern Hemisphere

[pyrote]

wow, slashdot is getting really good with up-to-date info... I spent 2 nights ago wathcing the display cover the sky here in Idaho... last time I checked that too was in the Northern hemisphere.

on a more technical note, austrailia isn't alone in all this crap. As far south as Idaho we can see aurora at the KP index of 9... as of this post, it's at 10.

Here are some pics

[Per Wigren]

This is what the sky looked like for a few minutes in Sweden yesterday: Norrsken

Personally I missed it, but I've seen the phenomenon 100s of times before because I'm initially from the middle/north parts of Sweden. It's really beautiful and surrealistic when it's constantly moving and morphing like an Amiga-demo plasma-effect in the sky. ;)

Re:gods fucking damnit.

[Tsalg]

Either sign up on the Aurora Alert mailing list or keep an eye on the realtime Kp index wherever you are. If it's night where you are now and you're not in the middle of a bloody thunderstorm then gtf out and look for auroras.

And if you're willing to pay $4.95 per month for it you can get the information brough to you by subscribing to the spaceweatherphone

Have fun down under - I heard you guys raise to hell and descend to heaven.

Saw a neat aurora display on Sunday...

[feidaykin]

I've lived here in Wisconsin all 23 years of my life, and on Sunday I saw the most impressive display of northern lights I've ever witnessed. The phenomena isn't unheard of here, but still rather uncommon. Sunday night's view was almost unbelievable, though... A huge patch of the sky was glowing, stretching nearly horizon to horizon. Being a bit of an astronomy buff, I love times like this because it ignites interest in the topic. Even among nerds, it seems interest in astronomy is sporadic at best... and among non-nerds, it's amazing how little even highly intelligent and educated people know about basic astronomy. I suppose the media doesn't help much since they get things wrong half the time. I've seen several TV shows say that seasons are caused by Earth's distance from the Sun... heh, guess "axis" is too hard a concept for the media? Maybe it's not a politically correct word... ;)

Actually, I enjoy talking with people that are clueless about astronomy because they tend to be the ones that show the most interest once they realize just how mysterious the universe is... Go astronomy!

Looked Good in Michigan!

[madstork2000]

I saw the lights early this morning (~2AM 11/10/2004).
I've been in southern Michigan for 30+ years. This was the first display I have witnessed. Quite an impressive site (so much so that I woke my wife up and made her watch them too.)

-MS2k