[pete scott]

Evening all, just thought i'd share a link with y'all to a page i've set up on Facebook for people to share info, help, locations, advice & photos about the Aurora. It's primarily aimed at Aurora around the UK but really i'd be happy to see anything posted from anywhere regarding the phenomena. Feel free to stop by & if you want to "like" the page then that'd be great & if you fancy trying to win the kudos of picture of the month & have it as the main image for the following month that'd be just awesome https://www.facebook...eatUkAuroraHunt

[Bazmundo]

Nice shot of the Aurora Borealis from underneath thick ice, by Irish photographer George Karbus featured in yesterday's Daily Telegraph pictures of the day.

[gary45]

That is amazing

[Bazmundo]

Stunning auroras captured by the Suomi NPP satellite over Alaska on the 17th, either the VIIRS team are getting better at filtering these images or these are the best yet captured!

http://cimss.ssec.wi.../archives/12003

[Dave Hancox]

Sunspot AR1654 has been classiefied as having potential for an X class flare. Any flare today is likely to be Earth bound. After being so quiet for so long let hope this is the start of some activity. http://www.spaceweather.com/

[DEJ McGlinchey]

a good site for watching live aurora stream, you just need to create a free account to watch, well worth it !! they have both a snapshot & live camera
http://aulive.net/en/nlive/index.html

This post has been edited by DEJ McGlinchey: 20 January 2013 - 08:11

[Bazmundo]

SIDC Belgium article on how watching the solar wind speed for signs of a CME can leave you open to the 'cloaked' variety (NB: SWPC saw this geo-effective CME from the 13th and correctly forecast it, so not entirely cloaked):

http://sidc.oma.be/n...77/welcome.html

[Bazmundo]

I thought I'd have a go at determining what caused last night's sudden geomagnetic storm, as it appears to have caught us off guard. There was a slightly faster solar wind expected which did have the right magnetic polarity to infuse charge into the upper atmosphere, but there was also a notable amount of magnetospheric wobbling going on despite the lack of a CME shock. There were no CMEs expected at the time. ACE data shows the reason for the wobbling, with pulses of density coincident with the changes in polarity [Fig 1] which translated into large wobbles in the magnetosphere [Fig 2 - Dynamic Pressure and Bz model, large gif]




This is most likely what caused such a large response in the auroral oval, as ripples through the magnetosphere excited/accelerated particles. This isn't normally expected of a simple change in wind speed, nor a crossing of a solar sector boundary. A magnetometer and induced ground current chart from Norway shows just how strong the effects were after 23z last night (same period as the magnetosphere model in Fig 2): http://spaceweather....upload_id=76574

The possible cause is the previous CME, as this Goddard ENLIL model run [Fig 3] shows the CME combed along the front edge of the faster wind speed sector before that reached the Earth, so could possibly have produced sufficient disturbance to generate the lumpy changes in density that lead to the wobbling magnetosphere. Just a theory.

[Dave Hancox]

Had me watching Glyn and skies were clearing at the time, see a KP4 was registered but quickly went North.

[Bazmundo]

Nice piece ffrom SIDC Belgium on the non-geoeffective CME activity towards the end of Feb, using overlaid spacecraft imagery (recommend the 2nd movie). I remember watching the SOHO anims at the time wondering when there was one with our name on it... as it turns out the best aurora show were generated by a very favourably timed Coronal High Speed Stream at the start of March.

Article here: 10 Little Indians

[Bazmundo]

A harmless non-CME filament eruption at lunchtime today, too elegant not to share though: http://helioviewer.org/?movieId=B7j95

[Bazmundo]

Well even if we've still yet to see accurate predictions of inbound CME behaviour, at least we're sharpening up our understanding of the direct effects on the magnetosphere thanks to a multinational study using the CIS experiment aboard one of the ESA's Cluster satellites. The summary of this is that compression of the tail of the magnetosphere results in up to a third of the bulk energy delivered to the auroral oval, in bursts that last for up to 20 mins. For the full article:

http://www.esa.int/O...stunning_aurora

Link to the Cluster mission page article, with a good Quicktime animation: http://sci.esa.int/s...fobjectid=51651

[Dave Hancox]

Really good Radio 4 program regarding how the UK is preparing for a major solar storm. (Available for another 7days.)


As we approach 'solar max', when the sun is at its most active and ferocious, astronomer Lucie Green investigates the hidden dangers our nearest star poses to us on Earth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/b01s09z3

[DEJ McGlinchey]

NASA's SDO have released a video which shows the last 3 years of the Sun with 2 pictures per day, great video

http://www.nasa.gov/...-light-3rd.html

[DEJ McGlinchey]

Aurorahunters have just released 2013/14 Lofoten Islands tour details, very tempting !!

http://www.aurorahun...e-holidays.html

[DEJ McGlinchey]

STRONGEST FLARE OF THE YEAR: A sunspot hiding behind the sun's northeastern limb erupted on May 13th at 02:17 UT, producing the strongest solar flare of the year so far.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme UV flash from the X1.7-class eruption


http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Bazmundo]

DEJ McGlinchey, on 13 May 2013 - 12:10, said:

STRONGEST FLARE OF THE YEAR: A sunspot hiding behind the sun's northeastern limb erupted on May 13th at 02:17 UT, producing the strongest solar flare of the year so far.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme UV flash from the X1.7-class eruption

Animations from Lockheed-Martin: http://sdowww.lmsal....44_87144_1/www/

[DEJ McGlinchey]

NASA SDO has released a video of the recent X class flares & CME's on their facebook page which is pretty impressive

https://www.facebook...&type=2

[Dave Hancox]

Article "A Second Breath For Solar Cycle 24" Here's hoping we have a second chance. http://sidc.oma.be/n...97/welcome.html