Geomagnetic Storm In Progress

shogun writes "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports a strong geomagnetic storm is in progress. The shuttle, ISS and GPS systems may be affected." They think this storm was caused by a weak solar flare on April 3rd. As you may expect, this has caused some unusually impressive northern lights since it started. What you may not expect is a photograph from Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the International Space Station showing the aurora from orbit. He apparently tweets a lot of pictures from space. He and his crewmates have taken over 100,000 pictures since coming aboard the ISS.

Comments

Geomagnetic data on the storm

[dtmos]

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has a bunch of data on the storm, including the estimated 3-hour Planetary Kp-index, and a bunch of other data and alerts.

A readable description of the relationship between geomagnetic events and aurora can be found here.

Re:Yet another stereotype confifrmed.

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Heh. Prepare to be downmodded by the overly sensitive. He's a good egg. I saw him on NASA TV doing one of their endless lame daily interviews with schoolkids, and he answered the inevitable "What do you miss most?" question with "A hot shower and cold beer". Ya gotta love an honest answer instead of the usual astronaut-speak.

Best. Space pic. Ever.

[The Bad Astronomer]

FWIW, I posted on my blog about this amazing pic from Soichi, explaining it a bit and giving my thoughts.