Space Weather Warning

SallyMac writes "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a Space Weather Warning. On Friday, May 13th, NOAA detected a 'geomagnetic storm of extreme proportions'. From the article: 'This event registered a 9 on the K-Index, which measures the maximum deviation of the Earth's magnetic field in a given three-hour period...The scale ranges from 0 to 9, with 9 being the highest. This was a significant event.' See the article on the NOAA site for more information." Spaceweather.com has details on the resulting auroras.

Comments

Some other useful links

[tqft]

Scroll down to Satellite Environment plot
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/today.html

there is also a plot which will update live
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/satenv.html

Re:Some other useful links

[Stripsurge]

This one has a nice map of where auroral activity is taking place and shows relative intensity.
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html

Northen lights

[Brtchlin]

i guess that would explain the light show we saw up here in western canada tonight, very vibrant greens, blues, yellows violets and all dancing like mad. I wonder if anyone else in the world is getting them as well?

Wrong write-up

[Chran]

Noooo ... A solar flare occured Friday, leading to a forecast about the K-9 geomagnetic storm which occured yesterday. Thanks for reading the articles before posting to Slashdot. Woohoo!

Yes!

[ImaLamer]

There are pictures from around the world (although mainly the US and Canada) at Spaceweather.com

They have pictures from California, South Dakota, Kansas and Illinois. Actually, I now see two more pages of fantastic photos.

Re:I need to find a new primary news source.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sign up to the Spaceweather list at http://science.nasa.gov/news/subscribe.asp?checked =sw

3-Hour K-Index Charts

[trevdak]

I found an automatically generated graph here:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html

Re:I need to find a new primary news source.

[drbill28]

You can also sign up for AuroraChasers. This will only give you a few minutes warning though. But it will tell you the exact Kp projection for your area. It's helpful if you want to see auroras.

Re:So What's the Duration?

[Durinthal]

About 60 hours, according to how long it took the story to get posted.

Re:What does this mean for the little man?

[some guy I know]

can someone tell me if I should be worried or not? What do I expect from this?

1. No.
2. An article about it on Slashdot that is about three days late.
   Oh, and some pretty pictures of aurorae posted on various web sites.
   Beyond that, not much.

Re:Scientists.

[dutchd00d]

You mean "everybody else" as in the Richter scale (3.5-8)? Or the Beaufort scale (0-12)? Or the stellar magnitude scale (-3.5 - ~25)? Or the Fujita scale (F0-F5)?

Re:Is this related to Earth's changing magnetic fi

[Anonymous Coward]

The polarity has, and does indeed reverse; however, 'soon' on the scale in which we speak of these events is on the same order as other geologic or paleolithic phenomena:

1000 years: Imminate
1M: Soon
100M: Long
250M+: Distant

While K-index values relate to maximum field purturbance, no, the solar ejectory matter was significantly above 'normal' (it was extreme), and this 9 K event was not an abbreancy related to the Earth's changing magnetic field.

Slashdot article in error

[laughing!oni]

Actually, the geomagnetic storm was detected on May 15th. The solar flare that caused the geomagnetic storm took place on May 13th. Someone should correct that slashdot article.

Re:I need to find a new primary news source.

[Bad D.N.A.]

Actually it was pretty clear that a CME was coming. When a CME is large enough and fast enough it will drive a shock and these shocks accelerate energetic particles. We have spacecraft that detect these particles well ahead of the approaching CME. It was very clear only a few hours after the flare that the CME (or part of it) was heading this way.

If you go to:

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ace/EPAM_7d.html

You can see the low energy ions (the lower panel) and the electrons (upper panel).
The initial burst of particles near the end of day 13 was followed by a steady increase in intensity that continued right up until the CME driven shock passed the spacecraft.

Solar Weather Data

[Hoi Polloi]

Here are some sources of realtime data:

X-ray Flux

Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Realtime ACE Observations

Re:Now I get it!!!

[Tophe]

The Straight Dope claims the letters come from the phrase "Oll Korrect." The phrase comes from a curious fad for "comical abbreviations" that swept the country in the 1830s and 1840s. The estimable Oxford Dictionary concurs, while also noting that the term has several foreign equivalents: the Scots "och aye," the Greek "ola kala," the Choctaw Indian "Oke." http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20050321.html