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

Scientists.

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

Why couldn't they use a scale of 1 to 10 like EVERYBODY ELSE?

Re:Scientists.

[twostar]

because they like having more then two options.

Re:Scientists.

[shut_up_man]

Nigel: Because ours go to nine. See? The numbers all go to nine. Look...right across the board.
Marty: Ahh...oh, I see....
Nigel: Nine...nine...nine....
Marty: ..and most of these instruments go up to ten....
Nigel: Exactly.
Marty: Does that mean it's...safer? Is it any safer?
Nigel: Well, it's one safer, isn't it? It's not ten.

Thanks for the warning.

[syynnapse]

I _would_ have taken the freeway home on friday had I known, but instead I got caught in this horrible weather while traveling through the upper atmosphere.
Way to have 20/20 hindsight NOAA.

Shortwaves were dead

[dimss]

There was very poor shortwave propagation yesterday. Now I see why...

I need to find a new primary news source.

[Max Threshold]

Shit, man. If they knew about the flare on Friday, how come somebody didn't say something, oh, Saturday or something? I totally missed the auroras.

Is there a RSS feed where I can get this kind of news in a *timely* manner?

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

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

[Velox_SwiftFox]

Because they didn't have any idea that there was going to be an extreme geomagnetic storm on friday. On friday, there was just an ordinary M8 class flare on the sun. Nothing special, it didn't even seem to be aimed at the Earth, but for some strange reason a glob of solar spittle, carrying solar magnetic field with it, held together or constructively interfered with itself, and we got an extra dose of it.

Kind of like the tornado sirens that go off after the tornado has passed. This was less a warning than a report of something that already happened.

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.

Great timing

[Stripsurge]

Two days ago something happened that could have caused some major problems. It didn't. Oh and be sure to catch the auroras yesterday. They sure were great. Thanks for the heads up ;)

Re:Great timing

[tehshen]

What's the opposite of news?

Slashdot

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

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?

This could be as bad as

[doofer]

the 'perfect space storm' of 1859.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/23oct_supe rstorm.htm

Shouldn't affect the Internet

[Teddy_Roosevelt]

Possible impacts from such a geomagnetic storm include widespread power system voltage control problems; some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts.

Bah. What's the worst that could h...[NO CARRIER]

A Sunday Morning Report

[BRock97]

Hell, it would have been nice to know this in advance...

As it was, got out of work about 0800Z Sunday morning and as I was driving home, thought I saw the most bizarre clouds. When I pulled into the driveway, there were these flashes that moved from west to east in the night sky. Since I live next to a small airfield, I assumed it was the lights from there, but when I looked in that direction, they were turned off. So, drove about 20 minutes west of the big city (damn that light) and was treated to a show that words cannot describe. This being my first aurora event, I had didn't know what to expect. I sat and watched for 45 minutes as the sky literally danced. About 30 minutes in, the aurora moved to right above my head and turned into a completely different show with different bands shooting out above me.

To anyone who hasn't witnessed an aurora, take the time to travel someplace that you can view them. It is totally worth the trip.

Judging by the POES Auroral Activity graphic, things are firing up again. Damn my luck that thundershowers are moving in to cloud things up....

Corrections

[zerbot]

What was observed on the 13th was solar flare activity. It doesn't become a geomagnetic storm until it reaches the earth, which it did on the 15th.

Is it really that hard to copy the right information out of sources?

just to be sure....

[zxnos]

...i want to be sure i have this right, on a scale that ranges from 0-9, 9 is the 'highest'? fascinating.

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:Yes!

[BJH]

They have pictures from California, South Dakota, Kansas and Illinois.

"Around the world", eh? Spoken like a true American.

Re:Yes!

[grcumb]

" They have pictures from California, South Dakota, Kansas and Illinois. "

'"Around the world", eh? Spoken like a true American.'

You have to cut them a little slack. From where they stand, California and Kansas look like different planets. 8^)

Re:Yes!

[Kaydet81]

Actually the US does represent a fairly significant slice of the globe in both lattitude and longitude. Also when someone asks what's happening around the world it's pretty difficult to report on more than that with which one is familiar ... typically one would rely on someone in another true part of the world to report on what they know, to get the whole picture.

QuitYerBitchin

Now I get it!!!

[d474]

"This event registered a 9 on the K-Index..."

...So, a "0" on the "K" index means everything's gonna be "0K". I always wondered where that came from.

the weather of the past...

[bdigit]

is always alot more accurate once it has occured already. thanks slashdot for making sure we get the weather a few days after it has occured

Re:What does this mean for the little man?

[redJag]

Just to be safe, I'd keep your little man away from it.

3-Hour K-Index Charts

[trevdak]

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

No Problem here

[DigiShaman]

Noppepeee. Noo probbbblleem he 20934 hehrr. I don0932t kn203w what yo.....u are all2342 talking about. THe99999-9re is 980980 da800ta corrupt232342ion you2234 Say0--0????

With apologies to Dr. Streetmentioner

[Stealth Potato]

Oh and be sure to catch the auroras yesterday.

Yeah, they're going to have been great. :-)

Is this related to Earth's changing magnetic field

[goat_of_wisdom]

I've read that Earth's magnetic field is getting weaker and will soon reverse its polarity. I wonder if a weakening magnetic field is more susceptible to these kinds of solar flares. (i.e. a normal flare results in a larger perturbation of Earth's magnetic field.)

So that explains why...

[FoXDie]

...my dead Grandpa started talking to me from my XM Satellite radio...

In case you are wondering...

Re:1 digit

[Fred_A]

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

There, that's more than 10 things counted with a single digit.

You must be new here :)

Solar Weather Data

[Hoi Polloi]

Here are some sources of realtime data:

X-ray Flux

Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Realtime ACE Observations