Major solar flare measuring X1.2 erupted from geoeffective region, bright CME generated
The Watchers, 7th January 2014
Geoeffective Active Region 1944 (beta-gamma-delta) erupted with major solar flare measuring X1.2 at 18:32 UTC today. The event started at 18:04, peaked at 18:32 and ended at 18:58 UTC. A Type II radio emission was registered at 18:17 UTC with estimated velocity of 1064 km/s. Type II emissions occur in association with eruptions on the sun and typically indicate a coronal mass ejection is associated with a flare event.
This huge active region is almost perfectly positioned for geoeffective events.
A bright coronal mass ejection (CME) was generated - high latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
At 10:03 UTC today this same region erupted with strong M7.2 solar flare.
Comment: Also:
Sun Unleashes First Major Solar Flare Of 2014 &
NOAA: Blast from the sun on path towards EarthThe recent powerful solar flares are expected to power up some major storms... Please note already,
Tropical Cyclone Developing Near Madagascar
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Storm Warning
Spaceweather.com, 9th January 2014
STORM WARNING: NOAA forecasters estimate a 90% chance of geomagnetic storms on Jan. 9th when a CME is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The speed of the solar wind around Earth could spike to 700 km/s (1.6 million mph) shortly after the impact, sharply compressing Earth's magnetosphere. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
HUGE SUNSPOT, CHANCE OF FLARES: The source of the incoming CME is AR1944, one of the largest sunspots of the current solar cycle. The active region sprawls across more than 200,000 km of solar terrain and contains dozens of dark cores. The largest could swallow Earth three times over. AR1944 is circled in this Jan. 9th snapshot from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
"New Years Day 2014 MAJOR STORM" is coming
Weatheraction.com, 29th December 2013
New solar eruptions on cue for MAJOR Top Red R4-R5+ 29 Dec- 2 Jan Solar & Weather Action period - Pics 28 Dec
MetO shows new Low off SW Ire which will be of major importance says Piers - - contrary to Met O view that it will not be as important as recent storms
Solar Active Region AR1936 wakes-up as it moves nearer to ~Earth-Facing for R4 29-30th.
Coronal Hole set to become ~Earth-Facing for R5+ 31st-2nd Jan.
See 'RTQ' Table below.
New X ray and proton flux bursts 29 Dec.
Comment: Piers Corbyn is predicting yet another major storm... As predicted by Piers 6 weeks ahead, December 2013 was wild... Update: Missed by a few days... see
Weatheraction.com headline: "Prepare for even more dangerous storm events including 'smowmageddon conditions' in parts of Britain / Ireland and Europe!" Btw, hail the size of golf balls in the UK is not something to cheer about... see https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdDO3mIIYAA_cCF.jpg
Weatheraction Warning
ANOTHER group of savage solar active region (AR1944...pic below Jan 3) now emerging which will become Earth-Facing ~Jan 10th (weather period 7-12th) marking WeatherAction's next R5. The Met Office – BBC havn't got a clue about the significance of this, do not want to know and do not want the public to know. WeatherAction subscribers to Br+Ir, Eu and USA forecasts ALREADY KNOW.- The new very large and deep Atlantic Low heading for Br+Ir in current standard models for ~7th or 8th or 9th is part of this serious time window 7-12th. In view of public speculation subscribers will get an update comment soon on this storm prior to WeatherAction further public comments.
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"Jet Stream Record speed a fingerprint of mini-ice-age"
weatheraction.com, 25th December 2013
"The record 275mph Jet Stream speed over the North Atlantic on 22nd Dec (below) - reported on TV by Chris Fawkes BBC-MetOffice - accords with our predictions of increasing 'Wild Jet stream' behaviour as the world moves further into the Mini-Ice-Age circulation we predicted years ago. Significantly this record comes during the late Dec series of our 'Top Red ('R4' and 'R5+') Weather periods which we predicted in mid Nov (in Br+Ir 45d forecast). Related dramatic solar eruptions and Auroral displays will reach a crescendo around the turn of the year and recur during January***.
"Newly errupting active sunspot regions are coming round to be Earth-facing (below) when we predicted and will drive dangerous weather conditions around end Dec and start Jan in USA, Brit+Ire, Europe and the whole world. These events of course are nothing whatsoever to do with the delusion of CO2 driven climate change. Indeed the CO2 warmist protagonists admit they havn't a clue about why the jet stream is so wild whereas it follows totally from our solar-driven theory*.
"The innuendo 'It's extreme it must be CO2' is a lie. This 'Mini-Ice-Age increase in wild and extreme events will continue for the next 20 years* by which time the CO2 theory and associated carbon tax theft and dodgy and intelectually-strained politicians will be in the dustbin of history"
Comment: Hmmm.... The UK is within the white triangle,click image icon for the hot link. Please note: even the UK Met Office are starting to take Sudden Stratospheric Warming events into account because of the dramatic changes in weather they can produce. THIS IS REAL CHANGE! Piers Corbyn is now claiming to be able to predict them and he gave his first this prediction in mid December 2013. This is weatherman history in the making, [see his Br+Ir 45d prod 15Dec]. Btw, I note a few folk in the UK are complaining about no electricity on Christmas day... Well, what about no electricity for millions of people for months and even years? Some real cosmic reality is looming for many... Thinking positively about it not happening is not a useful strategy...
Continuing Bursts of Solar Activity
Spaceweather.com, 12th November 2013
MINOR STORM WARNING: A 'cannibal CME' might be en route to Earth. NOAA analysts suspect that two CMEs propelled into space by the X-class flares of Nov. 8th and 10th have merged into a single cannibalized cloud. It could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 13th, producing minor geomagnetic storms.
YET ANOTHER X-FLARE: Solar activity is high as sunspot AR1890 continues to produce X-class solar flares. The latest, which registered X1 on the Richter Scale of Flares, occured on Nov. 10th at 05:15 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a bright flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation from the blast site:
The flare also produced a strong burst of ~300 MHz radio waves, recorded at the Mauritius Radio Telescope on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean: data.
This is the third X-flare from AR1890 since Nov. 5th, and all three have something in common: brevity. AR1890 tends to produce impulsive flares, peaking sharply in a matter of minutes or less. Brief flares usually do not produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs), but this one was an exception. A movie of the flare shows a plume of material lifting off the sun shortly after the UV flash. Update: A faint CME associated with that plume will probably sail south of our planet without hitting on Nov. 12th or 13th.
Comment:
http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/current_mpg/current_mpg/current_c2small.gif
Sunspot 1890: Powerfull X3.3 solar flare
Spaceweather.com, 6th November 2013
SOLAR FLARE CAUSES RARE 'MAGNETIC CROCHET': On Nov. 5th at 22:12 UT, the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR1890 erupted, producing a brief but intense X3-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Radiation from the flare caused a surge in the ionization of Earth's upper atmosphere--and this led to a rare magnetic crochet. Alexander Avtanski observed the effect using a homemade magnetometer in San Jose, California. A magnetic crochet is a disturbance in Earth's magnetic field caused by electrical currents flowing in air 60 km to 100 km above our heads. Unlike geomagnetic disturbances that arrive with CMEs days after a flare, a magnetic crochet occurs while the flare is in progress. They tend to occur during fast impulsive flares like this one.
Comment: Well, the Sun is reacting strongly to Comet ISON, as
NOAA Space Weather Alerts are admitting. Scientists are reporting major eruptions from the Sun and even the instantaneous and rare
Solar Flare Effect or Magnetic Crochet,which makes me wonder whether this means the equatorial electrojet was pumped up dramatically. So, it really looks like the US power down grid exercise was due to expectations that it may be totally necessary and prudent to be ready for a major solar blowout... As a reminder, maverick astrophysicist James McCanney said there could be a major electrical interaction when Comet ISON passed Mars. I assumed this meant big huge bolts of electrical discharge, (the thunderbolts of the gods), but Mars acquiring a permanent electrifed coma was an even bigger surprise, so we have to congratulate McCanney on his prediction. The next prediction is an interaction with Mercury and nobody can guess what could happen there... but we sit and wait whilst the Sun belches out more big flares and CMEs. This will continually weaken Earth's cosmic defenses that will facilitate the damage if we get a killer shot in the form of a fast CME with the right magnetic configuration from the Sun...
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A Solar Flare Effect
Australian Government, November 2013
A magnetic crochet arises from the increased ionisation in the D and E layers of the ionosphere caused by the massive increase in X-ray radiation generated by the solar flare. This ionisation changes the properties (especially the conductivity) of these ionospheric layers allowing electric currents to flow more easily. It is the magnetic effect of these currents which produce the jump in the earth's magnetic field. As the flare declines, the ionospheric layers quickly return to their previous state, the electric currents in the layers return to normal, and the change in the magnetic field ends.
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Current Space Weather Alerts
NOAA SWPC, November 2013
Space Weather Message Code: SUMX01
Serial Number: 92
Issue Time: 2013 Nov 05 2247 UTC
SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded X1
Begin Time: 2013 Nov 05 2207 UTC
Maximum Time: 2013 Nov 05 2212 UTC
End Time: 2013 Nov 05 2215 UTC
X-ray Class: X3.3
Optical Class: 1n
Location: S13E44
NOAA Scale: R3 - Strong
Potential Impacts: Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point.
Radio - Wide area blackout of HF (high frequency) radio communication for about an hour.
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Sunspot 1890 produced powerfull X3.3 solar flare
The Watchers, 5th November 2013
New active region 1890 produced yet another strong impulsive flare. Powerful X3.3 solar flare erupted at 22:12 UTC on November 5, 2013. This sunspot group already produced 2 M-class and dozens of C-class solar flares in the past two days.
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Largest ever recorded solar flare in history - The "X-Whatever" mega flare
The Watchers, 4th November 2013
On this day, exactly 10 years ago, the largest ever recorded solar flare in history erupted from Sun's western limb. This mega flare started its historic eruption at 19:29 UTC from Active Region 10486 and peaked around 19:50 UTC.
Ionizing radiation from the flare hit Earth's atmosphere soon after the explosion and caused a severe radio blackout. The explosion also hurled a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) into space but it was only partially directed toward Earth and expected to deliver only a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field.
The flare saturated the X-ray detectors on the NOAA's GOES satellites for 11 minutes and the jury was out for a while on the definitive classification of the flare.
Major solar flare reaching X2.3 erupted from AR 1875
Spaceweather.com, 30th October 2013
ANOTHER X-FLARE: Consider it a parting shot. Just before sunspot AR1875 rotated over the sun's western limb on Oct. 29th, it unleashed a powerful X2-class solar flare. NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the explosion's extreme ultraviolet flash:
X-rays and UV radiation from the flare ionized the top of our planet's atmosphere. Waves of ionization disturbed the normal propagation of radio waves over the Americas and the Pacific, and may have caused an HF communications blackout over the poles.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded a bright CME emerging from the blast site. Given the sunspot's location on sun's western limb, however, it is unlikely the CME will reach our planet. Analysts at NOAA are busy evaluating the possibility of a glancing blow in the days ahead.
Comment: I still think this activity needs to ramp up a lot more before we should be really concerned, but who knows? The sun is very unpredictable these days.
Solar Activity Up!
Spaceweather.com, 25th October 2013
CHANCE OF STORMS: Earth's magnetic field is about to receive a glancing blow from three CMEs observed leaving the Sun between Oct. 20th and 22nd. Forecast models suggest that the three clouds merged en route to Earth, and their combined impact could trigger a mild polar geomagnetic storm on Oct. 24-25. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
SOLAR FLARE! Solar activity is high. On October 24th at 00:30 UT, Earth-facing sunspot AR1877 erupted, producing a powerful M9-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast:
Update #1: The eruption hurled a faint CME into space and it appears to be heading toward Earth. The arrival time is not yet known.
Update #2: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has released a full-disk movie of the explosion. Play it.
More flares are in the offing. Two large sunspots, AR1875 and AR1877, have 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic fields that harbor energy for strong eruptions.
SOLAR TSUNAMI AND RADIO BURST: Sunspot AR1875 erupted on Oct. 22nd (21:20 UT), producing an impulsive M4-class solar flare and a loud burst of shortwave radio static. Amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico was listening at the time of the eruption. "I knew this flare was a strong one by the force of the radio shock front," he says. "It nearly lifted me out of my chair!" Click on the image to hear what emerged from the loudspeaker of his radio telescope:
Comment: The Sun has well and truly woken up as Comet ISON gets closer, but it's all a coincidence right! We have 3 CMEs merging into 1 and expected to knock Earth's magnetic field with a moderate bang... Then we have sunspots crackling with M class and even an X-class flares combined with radio noise that will generate more radio blackouts, if this intensifies we might get something significant from the Sun that does some serious damage....
Solar Activity Picking Up
Spaceweather.com, 12th October 2013
CHANCE OF FLARES: Sunspot AR1861 is pointing directly at Earth and crackling with C-class solar flares. Bigger eruptions could be in the offing. The sunspot has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that could erupt at any time. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-class flares and a 15% chance of X-flares on Oct. 12th.
FARSIDE ERUPTION: An active region located just behind the sun's northeastern limb erupted on Oct. 11th, producing an X-ray flash that registered M1.5 on the Richter Scale of Solar Flares -- despite the fact that it was partially eclipsed by the edge of the sun. The true intensity of the flare was much greater, possibly X-class. The explosion also hurled a spectacular CME into space:
Type II radio emissions from the expanding cloud suggest an expansion velocity of at least 510 km/s (1.1 million mph). That's a typical speed for CMEs.
Within a few days, the sunspot responsible for this outburst will rotate around to the Earthside of the sun. At that time, Earth-directed solar activity could increase. August and September were quiet months, but in October the sun seems to be waking up.
RADIO-ACTIVE SUN: Radio amateurs, have you heard any strange roaring sounds coming from the loudspeakers of your shortwave radios this week? It might have been the sun. "The Sun has been generating Type III solar radio bursts and they appear to be intensifying," reports amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico. "The strongest burst so far came at 2155 UTC on October 9th." Here it is as recorded on two radios at 28 MHz and 21 MHz:
Comment: There is no doubt about this now, the sun has become more active as we are getting strong flares and serious radio noise. I am thinking if we get a relatively small hit with say 10 million people affected, it might be enough to generate some interest in the fact our world has changed ...
Sundiving Comet, More to Come?
Spaceweather.com, 10th October 2013
SUNDIVING COMET:
Comet ISON is not the only comet diving toward the sun. Another smaller comet is feeling the heat today. Using a coronagraph to block the sun's glare, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is monitoring the comet's death plunge:
This comet is a member of the Kreutz family. Seen falling into the sun dozens of times each year, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet many centuries ago. They get their name from 19th century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who studied them in detail.
Today's sungrazer is probably doomed. The vast majority of Kreutz comets are small (no more than ~10 m wide) and they evaporate completely as they approach the sun. Comet ISON, on the other hand, is large (~0.5 km wide) and widely expected to survive its brush with the sun on Nov. 28th. It's a tale of two comets!
Comment: The thought struck me that the United States government might be expecting a volley of sungrazer comets at the same time as Comet ISON makes its approach... In December 2010, there were 25 comets in just ten days... its just a thought and we will have to watch to see what happens... but anything that might upset the Sun and produce some bad space weather has to be carefully considered. Especially now when it seems authorities are preparing for something serious.... The image icon is what happened when Comet Neat appeared from nowhere and triggered an humonguous explosion on the Sun... As they say, there is nothing new under the Sun... or in any other direction...
Green Comet ISON
Spaceweather.com, 10th October 2013
GREEN COMET ISON:
Comet ISON is brightening as it approaches the sun. At the moment it is glowing like a 10th magnitude star, too dim for naked eye viewing but an easy target for many telescopes on Earth. "This is what the comet looked like on Oct. 8th using the 0.8m (32 inch) Schulman Telescope," reports Adam Block from the University of Arizona Skycenter atop Mount Lemmon:
ISON's green color comes from the gases surrounding its icy nucleus. Jets spewing from the comet's core contain cyanogen (CN: a poisonous gas found in many comets) and diatomic carbon (C2). Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.
"I am certain more images of Comet ISON will be coming out shortly as it increases in brightness during its dive towards the Sun," adds Block. "Here is hoping it survives that rendezvous on Nov. 28th and emerges as something spectacular on the other side!"
Although the comet is very faint, finding it is easy. Comet ISON rises alongside Mars in the eastern sky just before dawn. Amateur astronomers, if you have a GOTO telescope, enter these coordinates. Special dates of interest include Oct. 13-15 when Mars, Comet ISON, and the first magnitude star Regulus will be clustered in a patch of sky less than 3o apart. Red Mars and blue Regulus will form a beautiful naked eye "double star" in the early morning sky. Sky maps: Oct. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Comment: Comet ISON is lighting up like a fairy light on a Christmas tree but NASA are continuing with their fairytale scientific explanations... NASA struggles to explain how comets can produce x-rays but the electrical explanation of double layers is very very simple! Again, if you pass any electric current through a neon tube it will glow, if you let sunlight illuminate a neon tube then nothing will happen... In fact, I don't think you will find a single experiment using sunshine that will produce x-rays... Comets are electric (act as an electrical discharge of the solar capacitor), but NASA doesn't want Joe Public aware or interested in the implications because they are too significant. There is lots of free info about comets being electric by people who care about the truth and understanding our reality. See this old info that is still very relevant
Electric Comet
Solar Activity Picking Up
Spaceweather.com, 9th October 2013
M-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Solar activity is picking up. New sunspot AR1865 erupted this morning (Oct. 9th at 01:48 UT), producing the strongest solar flare in nearly two months. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the M2.8-class eruption: movie. Earth was not in the line of fire, but future eruptions could be geoeffective as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the days ahead. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
CME IMPACT, GEOMAGNETIC STORM: An interplanetary shock wave, possibly the leading edge of a CME, hit Earth's magnetic field on October 8th at approximately 2015 UT (1:15 pm PDT). The impact sparked a G1-class geomagnetic storm (in progress) and bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. Lana Rupp photographed this "stunning display of color" over Borgarnes, Iceland, during the early hours of Oct. 9th:
Earth is passing through the wake of the CME where a region of high-speed solar wind continues to buffet our planet's magnetic field. NOAA forecasters, who suspect that a second CME might arrive on Oct. 9th, estimate a 65% chance of polar geomagnetic storms during the next 24 hours. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
Comment: So Comet ISON gets closer and solar activity increases... yes I know, it's a coincidence right! So for the serious damage, we are looking for lots of CMEs and then maybe there might be a knock-out blow that will occur when Earth's magnetosphere is left in tatters and we are defenseless... We are looking to see if we are in the warm up phase...
Space Weather Message Code: ALTK05
Serial Number: 730
Issue Time: 2013 Oct 08 2033 UTC
ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 5
Threshold Reached: 2013 Oct 08 2024 UTC
Synoptic Period: 1800-2100 UTC
Active Warning: Yes
NOAA Scale: G1 - Minor
Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 60 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.
Spacecraft - Minor impact on satellite operations possible.
Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes, i.e., northern tier of the U.S. such as northern Michigan and Maine
Source: NOAA SW Prediction: Space Weather Alerts
Filament CME Eruption - Direct Hit Coming?
Spaceweather.com, 30th September 2013
MAGNIFICENT ERUPTION: Breaking the quiet in spectacular fashion, a magnetic filament erupted from the sun's northern hemisphere during the late hours of Sept. 29th:
movie. The explosion hurled a
magnificent CME into space, and
it might have an Earth-directed component. Stay tuned for updates as more data from this event are analyzed.
Comment: This looks like a direct hit... See ENLIL simulation...
here The last CME "minor impact" a week ago caused the local magnetic field to swing 1 degree and ground currents were recorded in Lofoten.... Still, we are waiting for lots of CME blasts and one to arrive on target at hyper fast speeds... then we might see a change of attitude amongst other things.
AURORA SURPRISE - Swings Compass
Spaceweather.com, 23rd September 2013
AURORA SURPRISE: Last night in Norway, compass needles swung 1o away from normal and electric currents began to flow through the ground. For nearly an hour, a local geomagnetic storm occured over the northern part of the country. Rob Stammes recorded the phenomanon from his laboratory at the Polarlightcenter in Lofoten:
Comment: The previous day at spaceweather.com it only stated:
SLIGHT CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Sept. 23-24. That's when a minor CME could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field.
Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
AURORA SURPRISE - Swings Compass
Spaceweather.com, 23rd September 2013
AURORA SURPRISE: Last night in Norway, compass needles swung 1o away from normal and electric currents began to flow through the ground. For nearly an hour, a local geomagnetic storm occured over the northern part of the country. Rob Stammes recorded the phenomanon from his laboratory at the
Polarlightcenter in Lofoten:
Comment: The previous day at spaceweather.com it only stated:
SLIGHT CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Sept. 23-24. That's when a minor CME could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field.
Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
BILLION-TONNE BELCH emitted from Sun to hit Earth this weekend
Polar solar storm could set a few oscilloscopes a-wriggling at high latitudes
The Register, 23rd August 2013
Rare night clouds and glowing aurora: Astronomer captures incredible footage of two phenomena in Scottish night sky
Daily Mail, 20th August 2013
* Maciej Winiarczyk, 41, captured the images in Caithness, Scotland
* Noctilucent, or 'night-shining', clouds are normally too faint to be seen
* Half way through the video the clouds are joined by a spectacular aurora
A stunning time-lapse video of a rare celestial show has been captured dancing across a night sky.
The recording gives a rare glimpse of rolling noctilucent clouds and dancing aurora glimmering across the horizon.
The astronomer witnessed the famous Northern Lights and 'night clouds' earlier this month, over a single night above Caithness, Scotland.
It is unusual to see either phenomena, and incredibly rare to see both simultaneously.
Comment: Due to changing cosmic conditions this is becoming less of an atmospheric rarity. Note the previously rare purple aurora that is also now common and the fact this is Scotland, which is quite along way south for the 'mediocre' geomagnetic storm conditions that have generated this spectacular sighting.
Sprite Seasonspaceweather.com, 16th August 2013
COLORFUL SPRITES OVER NEBRASKA: "August 12th was another successful night in our sprites campaign," reports Jason Ahrns of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. With a team of researchers from NCAR, he has been flying over the midwestern USA onboard a Gulfstream V in search of exotic forms of lightning. As they were photographing a thunderstorm over Nebraska, these six sprites appeared
These remarkably beautiful discharges were red on top and purple on the bottom. "I really can't explain the color change," says Ahrns. "That's one of the things we hope to investigate with this campaign by capturing high speed spectra."
First documented in 1989 by scientists from the University of Minnesota who photographed strange flashes coming out of the tops of thunderstorms, sprites remain a mystery today. Neither their basic physics nor their effect on the surrounding atmosphere is well understood. "Do sprites have a large scale impact on the middle atmosphere?" asks Ahrns. "Sprites clearly represent some kind of transfer of energy, but is it on a scale that has a significant effect on the weather and climate? We can't answer that without studying them."
Comment: This 'exotic' atmospheric electrical discharge phenomena was originally reported by pilots, but atmospheric scientists scoffed until someone took a convincing photograph. Today atmospheric scientists tell us the electrical environment is now so intense, that a whole "zoo" of these atmospheric features exist in the upper atmosphere. Obviously, this is a big problem for NASA and rocket launches in general.
Continuing Bursts of Solar Activity
Spaceweather.com, 12th November 2013
MINOR STORM WARNING: A 'cannibal CME' might be en route to Earth. NOAA analysts suspect that two CMEs propelled into space by the X-class flares of Nov. 8th and 10th have merged into a single cannibalized cloud. It could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 13th, producing minor geomagnetic storms.
YET ANOTHER X-FLARE: Solar activity is high as sunspot AR1890 continues to produce X-class solar flares. The latest, which registered X1 on the Richter Scale of Flares, occured on Nov. 10th at 05:15 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a bright flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation from the blast site:
The flare also produced a strong burst of ~300 MHz radio waves, recorded at the Mauritius Radio Telescope on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean: data.
This is the third X-flare from AR1890 since Nov. 5th, and all three have something in common: brevity. AR1890 tends to produce impulsive flares, peaking sharply in a matter of minutes or less. Brief flares usually do not produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs), but this one was an exception. A movie of the flare shows a plume of material lifting off the sun shortly after the UV flash. Update: A faint CME associated with that plume will probably sail south of our planet without hitting on Nov. 12th or 13th.
Comment:
http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/current_mpg/current_mpg/current_c2small.gif
Electric Cloudsspaceweather.com,
2nd July 2013
ELECTRIC BLUE: Observers of noctilucent clouds often describe their appearance as "electric blue." On July 3rd, Nature provided a color-check when a lightning storm erupted in Szubin, Poland, right in front of a noctilucent display. [...]
The pale blue colors of the two phenomena are similar, but the resemblance is superficial. Lightning is hot, a genuinely electric discharge that heats the air to 30,000o C or more. The high temperature of the lightning's plasma (ionized air) gives it the same blue color as a hot O-type star. On the other hand, noctilucent clouds are cold, made of ice that crystallizes at the edge of space where the air temperature is -160o C. The tiny ice crystals in noctilucent clouds scatter blue light from the setting sun, which accounts for their lightning-like color.
Comment: Dr. Tony Philips at spaceweather.com, I don't believe you and neither does anyone else who knows enough of the facts. Noctilucent clouds were once called noctoluminescent and this reflected the fact [please excuse the pun] that light was being produced by an electrical discharge... This is an interesting quote from a long-term noctilucent cloud watcher.
NLCs are made up of meteoritic dust particles incased in ice crystals. These ice crystals which contain dust particles from meteoroids, comets, and asteroids are so small that their size is likened to the particles in cigarette smoke.
NLC ice crystals are so transparent that they only reflect 1 in 1000th of the incident sunlight they receive hence why their tenuous profile is never seen in the day time sky. NLCs are very thin, measurements have suggested their optical thickness is in the region of 10-4nm with cloud particles in the range of 50nm. The Mesosphere where the NLC particles reside experiences a freezing temperature of -100 degrees celsius, here there's very little water however at this temperature any molecules of water which do form will rapidly turn to ice and incase any dust (meteoritic) particles - which act as a seed - were the process of nucleation induces the NLCs to drop by several kilometers to the altitude in which they are normally seen some 80-100km above sea level.
Source: Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) - Observation & Structure
The noctilucent clouds are being lit up by the background electric fields surrounding Earth and electric currents coming from space. I believe that NASA are re-acting to public enemy no. 1 astrophysicist James McCanney explaining in plain English on his June 13th radio show that the proper original latin derived name for these clouds is noctoluminescent that reveals the light of these clouds is being produced by an electrical discharge. PLEASE REMEMBER, IN THE 1980s THE ELECTRICAL NATURE OF SPACE WAS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!!! THIS EXPLAINS THE LEGACY OF RUBBISH SCIENCE BEING PRESENTED BY SPACE SCIENTISTS TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. THE REAL TRUTH IS THAT THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT IN ANCIENT TIMES, EARTH HOSTED A HIGHLY ELECTRICAL ENVIRONMENT AND WAS OCCASIONALLY ZAPPED BY HUGE CURRENTS COMING FROM SPACE.
JamesMcCanneyScienceHour_June_13_2013.mp3
James McCanney Science, 13th June 2013
He starts at about 35:30 talking about noctilucent clouds being originally called noctoluminescent but the name was changed to hide the fact these lit up clouds are being lit up electrically.
Purple skies out of the blue...
spaceweather.com, 1st June 2013
GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A G1-class (Kp=5) geomagnetic storm is
in progress following the arrival of an interplanetary shock wave on May 31st. The source of the shock is not known; it might have been a minor CME that left the sun without drawing attention to itself. The impact sparked auroras across many northern-tier US states. [...]
Elsewhere in the USA, auroras were sighted as far south as
Colorado,
Maryland,
Iowa,
Wisconsin, and
Nebraska.
High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras tonight as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the impact. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on June 1st.
Comment: Purple skies only a decade ago were associated with major geomagnetic storms when Earth got slammed with huge blasts of cosmic energy... Today, space weather scientists are baffled when Earth's magnetic field collapses and we get slammed by the energy flow between the planets that defines the term interplanetary "shock"... Still, I am not convinced by the interplanetary shock explanation after using a 3D Online Simulator of Solar System
Solar System Scope, but enhanced energy in the solar wind from the huge coronal hole is the most likely source, see http://www.solen.info/solar/images/AR_CH_20130528_hres.jpg, more:
Geomagnetic storm still in progress (June 2, 2013)
New Daily Noctilucent Cloud Global Coverage Reports?spaceweather.com, 28th May 2013
NOCTILUCENT CLOUD SEASON BEGINS: Over the weekend, sky watchers in northern Europe and Canada spotted electric-blue tendrils of light reaching out of the western sky at sunset. This signals the beginning of the 2013 season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs). Photographer Silvar Mehik sends this picture from the island of Saaremaa in Estonia:
NLCs are Earth's highest clouds. In the upper atmosphere, 80+ km high, tiny ice crystals nucleate around meteoroids and other aerosols. When the crystals catch the rays of the setting sun, they glow electric blue. For reasons that are not fully understood, these highest and coldest of clouds form during the warmest months on the ground--late spring and summer.
Noctilucent clouds first appeared in the 19th century after the eruption of super-volcano Krakatoa. At the time, people thoght the clouds were caused by the eruption, but long after Krakatoa's ash settled, the clouds remained. In those days, NLCs were a polar phenomenon confined mainly ro far-northern places such as Scandinavia or Alaska. In recent years they have intensified and spread with sightings as far south as Utah and Colorado. Could this be a sign of climate change? A NASA spacecraft named "AIM" is in orbit to investigate.
NEW! Daily images from AIM are now published here on Spaceweather.com. To find them, look in the left column of the home page and scroll down below the coronal holes.
Comment: I was most interested in WHY noctilucent clouds have become part of the daily space weather reporting... Presumably, they are causing some interference somewhere along the line, but I have never seen a report that gives a hint there is an issue. Please note: noctilucent clouds reflect radar signals...
Killer Electrons Swarm Around Earthspaceweather.com, 15th May 2013
ELECTRON STORM: In the past 24 hours, the flux of high-energy electrons swarming around Earth has increased more than tenfold. The source of this "electron storm" is a 700 km/s stream of solar wind buffeting Earth's magnetic field. NOAA cautions satellite operators that "satellite systems may experience significant charging" in response to accumulated electrons.
Comment: So, is this a warning that we might see more satellites incapacitated? This is is an interesting report about the impact
Solar storms create 'killer electrons'
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WeatherAction: Comment re Electron Flux early 26th to late 27th May
WeatherAction.com, 20th May 2013
Electron flux increased 300 fold from early 26th to late 27th in line with major Sun-Earth effect as forecast for R5+(27-29th)/QV5+(26-29th) period:
Comment:
Piers Corbyn is pointing out the GOES electron flux has actually gone up 300 times based on the data from the GOES 15 electron flux 5 min data.... Direct link here
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Shocking recipe for making killer electrons
European Space Agency News, 11th March 2010
"Killer electrons are highly energetic particles trapped in Earth's outer radiation belt, which extends from 12 000 km to 64 000 km above the planet's surface. During solar storms their number grows at least ten times and they can be dislodged, posing a threat to satellites. As the name suggests, killer electrons are energetic enough to penetrate satellite shielding and cause microscopic lightning strikes. If these electrical discharges take place in vital components, the satellite can be damaged or even rendered inoperable. [...]Thanks to this analysis of Cluster data, if the killer electrons happen to be ejected towards Earth, we now know that they can strike the atmosphere within just 15 minutes."
- Science highlight - Rise of the Killer Electrons
ESA News, 16th July 2010
"Two belts of trapped high-energy particles, held in place by Earth's magnetic field, surround Earth: the Van Allen radiation belts. Killer electrons in the outermost belt move close to the speed of light and carry a lot of energy. These can penetrate satellite shielding and cause microscopic lightning strikes that damage and sometimes destroy vital components.[...]Intense solar activity can disrupt the Van Allen belts, and Cluster made another vital discovery when it was on hand to observe directly the effects of a particularly strong solar shock wave hitting the magnetosphere in 2004.It saw the creation of killer electrons through what turns out to be a two-step process. The electrons are initially accelerated by the shock wave compressing Earth's magnetic field. Then Earth's magnetic lines wobble, creating something like a very large-scale, low frequency laser, which accelerates the electrons even more, up to 'killer' energies.And Cluster showed that this transition, from normal to killer intensities, can happen in just 15 minutes."
- Lancaster involved in ô00,000 project to understand "killer electrons"
Lancaster University News, January 2011
"Scientists aim to find out more about so-called "killer electrons" in the Van Allen radiation belt around Earth, which can damage orbiting satellites and spacecraft.The Van Allen radiation belt periodically discharges energetic particles such as electrons and ions into the high atmosphere above Earth, especially at the polar regions. This can change the chemistry of the atmosphere, with possible implications for climate change. "
JamesMcCanneyScienceHour_May_23_2013.MP3
jmccanneyscience.com, 26th May 2013
Comment: James McCanney says he believes the wild weather for the last 2 months was caused by a strong electrical connection with Saturn and he spends about 34 mins of this show talking about it including a clip from a show that did not air last week. He says the Saturn connection has gone but astrophysicist Piers Corbyn says there is worst to come.... Piers is not very often wrong... [Piers predicted tornadoes in the United States for the 3 day period, 26th to 29th and there were in fact 76 tornado's in 10 states.] I would like to add that the recent bout of solar flares and CME's might have added to the bumper cosmic energy supply. WHATEVER, IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES IN AN AREA THAT IS PRONE TO TORNADOES OR IF YOU THINK BEING HIT BY GIANT HAIL IS A PROBLEM, THEN DOWNLOAD THE FREE WEATHERACTION.com MAY LONGTERM WEATHER ADVISORY. Download
WeatherAction USA May forecast with likely main threatened areas 25-29 May (.pdf) & Source
link
End of the world? Bizarre 'bubble cloud' formations baffle onlookers
DARK, menacing and bubbly - these images show the outstanding phenomenon which materialised over the skies in Shropshire.
The Express, 14th May 2013
The skies above Telford formed into dark clouds which turned into grey and imposing bubbles and resembled the advent of an alien landing. The imposing clouds left onlookers questioning their existence and how they had formed. In fact, the clouds, known as the lesser-spotted mammatus – appeared as a lobe and were packed full of ice and rain.
According to local forecasters the clouds created a large thunderstorm which drenched much of Britain over the weekend.
The clouds are associated with the powerful storms which can sometimes occur in the summer and are a sign of massive quantities of water vapour. Phil Spencer, a 39-year-old truck driver from Telford, was left baffled by the sudden change in the weather.
Comment: These are mammatus clouds.
Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air. . I do not believe this is the end of the world just the end of our current dispensation. Planet Earth will survive, but because we are at the end/start of a new cosmic cycle, universal intelligence has an opportunity to do some cosmic housekeeping that can only be achieved in extreme cosmic conditions that also produce extreme and 'weird' weather. This knowledge has been retained in the collective consciousness and that is why people associate extreme weather with apocalypse. See the archives to find the opinion of the academic elite that inform us that space weather is now affecting our weather.
Fourth X-Class Solar Flare Released And Earth Is About To Be In A Shooting Gallery
TheWeatherspace.com, 15th May 2013
For many years scientists have theorized that the planet Earth will be struck by a major solar flare, pushing us back into the 15th century. It can happen today, tomorrow, or 10,000 years from now, but we will be hit.
The sun unleashed the fourth X-class flare, a 1.2 on the Solar Richter Scale, which goes from C, to M, and then to X, the largest. A 1.2 is large, but not large enough to bring us back to the stone-age. We need something larger than an X45-60 to do this.
"This game we play with our Sun is like 'Solar Russia Roulette' and the Sun is the weapon and the Coronal Mass Ejections are the bullets," said TheWeatherSpace.com Senior Meteorologist Kevin Martin. "The sun rotates around every couple of weeks or so and blasts CMEs off in various directions. One of them is bound to be the bullet to send us back in time and fry all of our electrical systems."
Comment: I think this article has been written with a little poetic licence. I have been reading space weather articles, reports and books for over 8 years but nowhere has any scientist claimed that a X45-60 solar flare will take us back to the Stone Age but if they have, I would like a reference... Basically, it's a lot more complicated than that. The mixture of parameters is what causes uncertainty and that is why scientists are so concerned about forecasting space weather in order to mitigate the impact. So, we could have a bolt out of the blue but the damage is more likely to come from a weakened magnetic field that has been hit with a volley of big solar flares and CMEs. Simply, if we get a hail of bullets, it becomes debateable which bullet caused the fatality. Here is a good report that summarises in 29 pages the issues
Solar Storm Threat Analysis (2007) by James A. Marusek, but as you can see from my archives, there are lots and lots of similar reports detailing the issues. If you new to the concept of space weather and would prefer to watch an old documentary-drama I can recommend
Perfect Disaster: Solar Storm (2006). The documentary-drama points out how we can tell space weather is getting much worse and my archives provide ample examples based on the criteria provided here. Engineer and hero John Kappenman is quoted here and he stated that governments aiming to take down national power grids in order to save them from being destroyed was akin to playing Russian Roulette with the Sun. Nothing has changed... Read my archives... the only thing that has changed is Kappenman is prepared to claim that the whole United States power grid could be destroyed in one powerful blast and that is why ex-CIA director Director R. James Woolsey is bleating in the mainstream media about decentralised power grids.... It seems that the realisation has finally hit home with paranoid war hawks with less evolved mental faculties, of just how vulnerable our modern technological society has become. See Best of the Blog
Space Weather News & Reports.
Another X-rated Solar Flarespaceweather.com, 15th May 2013
ANOTHER X-FLARE ON MAY 15: When the week began, the sun hadn't unleashed an X-flare all year long. In only two days, sunspot AR1748 has produced four. The latest X-flare from this active sunspot occured on May 15th at 0152 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Although the sunspot is not directly facing Earth, this flare might have produced a CME with an Earth-directed component. We are waiting for coronagraph data from SOHO and the twin STEREO probes to check this possibility. Stay tuned for updates.
In summary, AR1748 has produced an X1.7-class flare (0217 UT on May 13), an X2.8-class flare (1609 UT on May 13), an X3.2-class flare (0117 UT on May 14), and an X1-class flare (0152 on May 15). These are the strongest flares of the year, and they signal a significant increase in solar activity
Comment: The issue now is if this sunspot is going to just keep popping strong flares in our direction....
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Another X-rated Solar Flare
spaceweather.com, 15th May 2013
ION WAVES IN THE ATMOSPHERE: Although AR1748 is not directly facing Earth, its strong flares have nevertheless affected our atmosphere. UV and X-radiation hitting the top of the atmosphere ionizes atoms and molecules, creating ion waves over the dayside of the planet. Roberto Battaiola detected these waves on May 13th using a Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance monitor in Milan, Italy:
Sudden ionospheric disturbances--"SIDs" for short--make themselves known by the effect they have on low-frequency radio signals. When a SID passes by, the atmosphere overhead becomes an good reflector for radio waves, allowing signals to be received from distant transmitters. Battaiola monitored a faraway 21.75 kHz radio station to monitor the SIDs over his location.
Third major X-class solar flare in 24 hours - X3.2 on May 14, 2013
The Watchers, 14th May 2013
Solar activity increased rapidly in the past two days with three M-class and three major X-class solar events. The latest recorded is the strongest flare so far this year, recorded as X3.2 on May 14, 2013 at 01:17 UTC. This event was associated with Type II and Type IV Radio Emissions and 10cm radio Burst.
Comment: I am not really too interested until solar flares are X20+ and/or there is 50+ big solar flares in a week accompanied with a similar number of MASSIVE coronal mass ejections where Earth's magnetic field will be left in shreds... Then, if and when we get a killer shot, I will be interested in what will happen next...
Spin-down Measurement of PSR J1745-2900: a New MagnetarAstronomer's Telegraph, 4th May 2013
Following the detection with the NuSTAR X-ray Observatory of a pulsed signal from a likely magnetar (ATel #5020) located 3" from Sgr A* (ATel #5032), we requested a Swift ToO observation to monitor its temporal and spectral evolution. [...]
Based on the X-ray timing properties, the pulsed radio emission (ATel #
5035,#
5040,#
5043), the X-ray spectral measurements (ATel #
5006,#
5011,#
5020), and the likely association with Swift flaring behavior (ATel #
5006,#
5009), we conclude that PSR/SGR J1745-2900 is a magnetar that has emerged from a quiescent state. This is similar to the behavior of the Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsars, and further blurs any distinction among the different classes of magnetars.
Comment: From a previous Astronomer's Telegram we read:
The bursting, timing, and spectral properties strongly suggest a previously unknown magnetar undergoing an outburst. Further observations are planned to follow the flux and spectral evolution as well as to measure the spin-down rate and to search for additional bursts. NuSTAR has triggered additional ToO observations. Additional radio observations of the field, particularly to search for radio pulsations, are encouraged.
NuSTAR discovery of a 3.76 second pulsar in the Sgr A* region Astronomer's Telegram, 27th April 2013
This should be exciting news for citizens of planet Earth, as we are being fired on from a brand new magnetar that exists near the dead centre of our galaxy! Here is a reminder from my essay
The Greatest Transition where I pointed out that ancient warnings were left for us Earthlings informing us that occasionally we are subjected to some serious cosmic fire power.
"Since astronomers have only recently become aware of the existence of Magnetars, we have to consider whether their existence could have been known to ancient astronomers. We know that the ancient practice was to carefully preserve cosmic events, so maybe we can rethink the meaning of some zodiacal imagery. The symbolism of the scorpion and archer that are often intertwined, are said to represent the twin guardians of Galactic Center, the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio that are on opposite sides of Galactic Center. However, we could also see that the imagery of the scorpion-man archer and his stingers is really telling us that Earth could be stung or receive cosmic arrows from this region. As already mentioned, SGR 1806-20 lies in the constellation of Sagittarius and SGR 1900+14, is located in the constellation of Aquila about 20,000 light-years away. Both of these regions of the sky have been associated with catastrophe. Dr. LaViolette, in his book, Earth Under Fire, tells us that these regions of the sky were especially noted and that the Barasana Indians of South America with their Star Path Zodiac, have retained this ancient knowledge by a naming convention that highlighted obnoxious and negative regions and benign and positive ones along the center of the Milky Way. The understanding amongst the learned that has been passed down to us is that after the Conflagration there will be a Restoration, a New Heavens and a New Earth — literally Earth's tilt will change and the dome of heaven will appear differently. Since, changes are already occurring; maybe we can hope that there is a universal plan for planet Earth that does not involve major catastrophe."
Source: The Greatest Transition in the History of Mankind (June 2010)
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A Sketch of a scorpion-man archer (12cm tall) displayed on a twelfth-century B.C.E. Babylonian boundary stone from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I, Assyro-Kassite Period (British Museum, London)
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It is quite amazing to me that the cosmic conditions around Earth are getting more and more intense, but there is very little interest in reality, despite the effort to preserve ancient warnings. Presumably, the few that are awake can only surmise the real issue is the widespread low levels of consciousness and dumbed down so-called "spiritual" teachings being spread by hoardes of pied pipers. Thanks to S. Tellem for the tip.
Something strange is happening in all our skies!
Spaceweather.com, 25th April 2013
ELLIPTICAL MOON HALOS: The moon is waxing full, which means now is the time to be alert for
icy moon halos. On April 22nd, Darryl Luscombe of Sointula, British Columbia, saw an unusual specimen. Instead of being circular, as usual, this halo was elliptical:
"I dont think I have ever seen an elliptical halo around the moon before," says Luscombe. "I looked up and just stared for about a minute. Then I raced inside to get my camera. I just managed to photograph it before it disappeared." Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley comments on the apparition: "There have been quite a few ellipticals seen in the last few weeks both in Europe and the US.
Something strange [is happening] in all our skies!"
ice halos are much smaller than the ordinary
22 degree halo encircling the sun or moon," Cowley continues. "In the 22 degree halo the ring is effectively made by light refracting through a
60 degree ice prism. The smaller
elliptical halos need much narrower prisms and we think that six sided plate shaped crystals with very shallow pyramidal ends might do the work. The problem is that such crystals are unphysical and
computer simulations using them do not predict the halo very well. An alternative is the wedge shaped sections of small
snowflake-like crystals. Whatever their cause, they are rare and mysterious!"
Comment: Earth Sky has a nice article called where we are informed:
"...halos are a sign of high thin cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above our heads. These clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. The halos you see are caused by both refraction, or splitting of light, and also by reflection, or glints of light from these ice crystals. The crystals have to be oriented and positioned just so with respect to your eye, in order for the halo to appear. [...] Bottom line: Halos around the sun or moon happen when high, thin cirrus clouds are drifting high above your head. Tiny ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere cause the halos. They do this by refracting and reflecting the light."
What makes a halo around the sun or moon?,
EarthSky, 19th Jan 2013
William R. Corliss is famed for his rigorous documentation of anything out of the ordinary in the footsteps of Charles Fort, the original anomalist who was way way way ahead of the curve... Corliss tells us (just as I expected) elliptical haloes are nothing new, but there is no scientific explanation and that is why spaceweather.com is forced to highlight that "something strange is going on in our atmosphere....". From my point of view, it seems we have evidence of meteoric dust with different properties passing Earth but it must be rare, BUT if these haloes persist, then answers must be provided by the scientific community.
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Another Elliptical Halo
Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 88: Jul-Aug 1993
June 6, 1992. Aboard the m.v. British Skill in the Indian Ocean.
"Between 1300 and 1345 UTC, a complete halo phenomenon was observed round the moon, as shown in the sketch. The ring was complete although its appearance was elliptical. Its horizontal diameter was 40° with its vertical diameter being 53°.
"The illuminated part of the moon was not in the centre of the halo, its altitude at the lower limb (phase, new waxing) being 38° 54'. The altitude of the upper part of the halo was 59° whereas the lower edge was at 6°."
(Anderson, P.R.; "Elliptical Halo," Marine Observer, 63:65, 1993.)
Comment. Once again we have another observation called "impossible" by geophysicists. Halos, they say,
must be symmetrical about the sun or moon. Yet, photos and precise measurements, like those above, demonstrate the reality of the phenomenon.
Biggest solar flare of the year knocks out radio transmissions
NASA on alert for more after-effects of geomagnetic storm to satellites and spacecraft.
Cnet News, 11th April 2013
Early this morning [3:16 p.m. EDT on April 11, 2013] the sun erupted, sending billions of solar particles into space at over 600 miles per second, raising the prospect of solar radiation storms above the Earth, according to NASA.
A spokesman said the resulting emissions sparked a short-lived radio communications blackout on Earth. The radio disruption has since subsided. The appearance of the strongest solar storm of 2013 is part of an increasingly common sight as astronomers say this is connected to the sun's 11-year activity cycle. More intense solar eruptions are expected later in the year.
Comment: Hmmm... a radiation storm occurring too... see the CME movie at Spaceweather.com
CME Movie 11th April 2013. I ignored this flare because it was not X-rated... it just goes to show how weak Earth's cosmic shielding has got. The timing is terrible too.... just as North Korea is threatening war and there is talk of a nuclear capability (of course, this might be all rhetoric and not true, but still the timing is not good for a radio blackout of presumably the daylight side of Earth...).
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Spring Fling: Sun Emits a Mid-Level Flare
NASA Science News, 11th April 2013
UPDATE: The M6.5 flare on the morning of April 11, 2013, was also associated with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later. CMEs can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME began at 3:36 a.m. EDT on April 11, leaving the sun at over 600 miles per second.
Strong CME impact – G2 Geomagnetic Storm
The Watchers, 17th March 2013
Long duration M 1.2 solar flare erupted on March 15, 2013 and launched a Full-Halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
toward Earth. It hit Earth's magnetic field at 06:01 UTC on March 17, 2013 and Geomagnetic K-index of 6 reached
threshold on March 17, 2013 at 08:42 UTC – G2 Geomagnetic Storm. The impact was strong, lifting the solar wind
speed from 300 km/s to greater than 600 km/s. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
Long duration M1.2 solar flare, Full-Halo Earth directed CME
The Watchers, 15th March 2013
Region 1692 erupted with long duration M-class solar flare peaking at 06:50 UTC as M1.2 solar flare on March 15, 2013. The event started at 05:52 and ended at 07:30 UTC. A Full-Halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was observed and it looks to be Earth directed.
A 10cm Radio Burst was associated with the event indicating significant radio noise in association with a solar flare. This noise is generally short-lived but can cause interference for sensitive receivers including radar, GPS, and satellite communications. Region 1692 was still classified with Alpha magnetic configuration at 0:30 UTC today.
Comment: Data and Info.
BIG CME BLAST ON THE SUN
Spaceweather.com, 7th March 2013
FARSIDE EXPLOSION: An active region on the farside of the sun exploded during the early hours of March 5th, hurling a bright CME into space. Cameras onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the expanding cloud:
NASA's STEREO-Behind spacecraft is stationed over the farside of the sun, directly above the blast site. An extreme UV telescope onboard the spacecraft recorded a movie of the explosion. The responsible active region will rotate onto the Earthside of the sun in less than a week, which means geoeffective solar activity is in the offing.
Comment: Wow.... Watch the Movie...
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Full-halo Coronal Mass Ejection on farside of the Sun
The Watchers, 5th March 2013
Region 1678 erupted with massive, full-halo, Coronal Mass Ejection around 04:00 UTC on March 5, 2013. The CME will have no effect on Earth as Region 1678 is on farside of the Sun. This old and active region is about to rotate onto the eastern limb by this weekend.
Couple of hours later, at 07:54 UTC, an impulsive M1.2 solar flare erupted from Beta classified Active Region 1686. A Type II Radio Emission was associated indicating a CME was generated.
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M1.2 Solar Flare & Huge Halo CME - March 5, 2013
YouTube, 5th March
Noctilucent Clouds Overhead Birmingham UK
Spaceweather.com, 20th February 2013
I am an airline pilot in UK and occasionally see Noctilucent clouds. Usually during the season at about midnight looking North. But yesterday (20 Feb 13) I was very surprised to see them looking south towards France and so close to Sun Rise
Comment: Hmmm.... Meteoric dust... First it was confined to the poles, then about 2006 it shifted towards the equator during the summer and presumable now these clouds will start appearing all over the planet all year round... See archives for more info.
Not So Rare? Ice Crystal Halos
spaceweather.com, 1st February 2013
RARE ICE HALOS: On January 28th at the Vitosha mountain in Sofia, Bulgaria, skiers stopped in their tracks when a magnificent network of luminous arcs and halos formed around the midday sun. Janeta Ganchevska pulled a mobile phone out of her jacket and snapped this photo of the apparition:
"Small, fine crystals were raining from the sky," says Ganchevska. "Sunlight shining through the crystals produced these very bright halos."
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley comments on the display: "Rare halo arcs come in clusters. They are a sign of large numbers of near perfect hexagonal ice crystals drifting in the air. In this case, the crystals were nearby and called
'diamond dust.'"
Comment: I think these are the crystals from the dusty plasma arriving from deep space and into our solar system that scientists have been researching for over a decade. See previous comments about rare atmospheric phenomena now becoming commonplace and the ESA warnings that Earth would be smothered in cosmic dust by 2012... It might also explain the severe smog in China and Japan because these cosmic particles are combining with the already high levels of pollutants.
The Solar Wind Delivers
Spaceweather.com, 20th January 2013
CME IMPACT + MICROBIAL LIGHTS:
A coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 19th at approximately 17:15 UT. The weak impact did not trigger a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but it did illuminate the Arctic Circle with auroras. Frank Olsen photographed the display from a beach in Sortland, Norway; scroll past his picture to learn about the glittering lights in the sand:
The lights in the sand are bioluminescent dinoflagellates, a type of naturally glowing microbe. "To my surprise, I found these guys floating around on the beach tonight," says Olsen. "They looked great together with the auroras in the sky."
There is an interesting link between the auroras and the dinoflagellates. Both use oxygen to create their glow. In the case of the marine organism, a chemical pigment (luciferin) reacts with oxygen to create light. Meanwhile up in the sky, charged particles from the solar wind rain down on the atmosphere, colliding with oxygen molecules to create the telltale green hue of auroras.
Comment: When I read this article, I had the strange idea that the bioluminescent dinoflagellates were being delivered by the solar wind.... I have commented before and have provided the standard scientific explanations and my opinion that the increase in red tide/bioluminescent waters was down to an electromagnetic interactions between the Earth's atmosphere and marine organisms... Today, the idea that charged particles in the solar wind are somehow part of the chemical reaction creating bioluminsecent waters struck me.... My second thought was the possibility of organisms floating at the top of the Earth's atmosphere are the catalyst as they being brought down to the Earth's surface (the geophysical aspects have been mentioned elsewhere). I think I have a right to speculate because scientists do not fully understand the process of bioluminescence and it is becoming increasingly obvious that something new and strange is going on.... So, is the increasing transformation of Earth's waters, the signal for the arrival of a new Earth?
Cosmic Serpents In The Sky
Spaceweather.com, 15th January 2013
AURORAS BY SATELLITE:
A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 13th, igniting bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. A US Department of Defense meteorological satellite photographed the luminous tendrils winding past Iceland
Mark Conner of the Air Force Weather Agency prepared the image using data from a low-light camera onboard the DMSP-18 satellite. It shows not only the auroras, but also the city lights of northern Europe and the glow of gas flares from oil rigs in the North Sea. The auroras were every bit as bright as the manmade lights below.
The view from the ground proves the comparison.
Comment: The "luminous tendrils" are the 'serpents' referred to in ancient mythology and ancient texts, alongside a host of other plasma related manifestations in our atmosphere that describe the movement of electric currents in a weak plasma. This is an extract from my book,
Tuning the Diamonds: Electromagnetism & Spiritual Evolution, from the new Chapter 4 of the most recent 2012 version, we read:
Mythology and Plasma Phenomena
There is abundant mythology that refers to dragons and serpents, see figure 4.16 [42]. The principal god of the Aztec was Quetzalcoatl, which was most often described as 'the feathered serpent'. Similarly, the Maya called the plumed dragon Cuculcan or Cucumatz, the Zuñi Kolowissi and the Hopi Palulukoñ. In Venezuela, the Makiritare people report the snake Huiio crowned herself with the scattered feathers of the ancestral birds. Quetzalcoatl and his counterparts were typically envisioned as glowing entities manifesting themselves in lightning or other streaks of light displayed in the sky. In the mythology of the Brulé Sioux, Uncegila was a "huge snakelike monster" along whose back ran "a crest that sparkled like dancing flames". Interestingly, there have been instances of space shuttle launches that have produced trails that look like a feather. This is a standard feature of strong filamentation that occurs when plasma experiences intense electrical activity [43]. Thus in more ancient time, it is likely the same affect could have been generated by comets traveling across the sky.
Maybe, some of these myths preserve the knowledge of historical, often cataclysmic events. For example, there is the mythology of the Greek serpent-dragon Typhon, whose attack nearly destroyed the world before he was vanquished by Zeus. Typhon is described as a flaming, bearded, feathered, or long-haired serpent, often embellished with multiple heads and mouths, whose writhing form appears in the sky as chaos and darkness overtake the world. The Greek sculpture of Typhon depicted in figure 4.17, shows three heads and the entwined serpent tails represent the braided nature of Birkeland currents. [44]
Tuning the Diamonds: Electromagnetism & Spiritual Evolution (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012)
Waves in the Sky - Signs of More Cosmic Dust in the Atmosphere?
spaceweather.com, 30th December 2012
VAN GOGH CLOUDS:
On Christmas morning, Gene Hart of Jonesport, Maine, woke up early to enjoy the sunrise before opening presents. What he saw may have been the best gift of all. "There was a cloud formation showing a remarkable series of wave shapes," says Hart. "They were backlit by the rising sun over Moosabec Reach." He snapped this picture of the harbor using a 14-megapixel digital camera:
"I also took some 28x zoom images of the wave structure," says Hart. The close-ups are a must-see.
These clouds, sometimes called "billow clouds," are produced by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability when horizontal layers of air brush by one another at different velocities. A better name might be van Gogh clouds: It is widely believed that these waves in the sky inspired the swirls in van Gogh's masterpiece The Starry Night
Comment: This is not just about fluid dynamics, the
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is also a strong feature of strongly coupled dusty plasmas. There seems to quite a few reports of these clouds over the United States and fits the pattern of a lowered ionosphere over parts and the atmosphere generally showing signs of being more disturbed....
Huge pillars of light appeared December 17, 2012 near the town of Palotina, Brazil- VIDEO
HainanWel.com, 26th December 2012
Comment: This is very bright and I am not really satisfied with the standard answers, see Wikipedia,
Crepuscular rays,
Anticrepuscular rays & NASA's APOD, 2010 November 28,
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado .
Rare Moon Haloes & Diamond
spaceweather.com, 24th December 2012
ODD-RADIUS MOON HALOS:
Many sky watchers have witnessed a halo around the moon--a ring of light that surrounds the lunar disk at a radius of 22 degrees. The phenomenon is caused by pencil-shaped ice crystals in cirrus clouds that bend moonlight. On Dec. 21st, Harald Edens of Magdalena, New Mexico, witnessed a rare double halo:
"Just after 7 PM local time I noticed a bright 22-degree halo around the moon," says Edens. "It was only when I started photographing that halo when I discovered a rare 9-degree halo inside the 22-degree halo."
The inner 9-degree halo is caused by ice crystals in the shape of pyramids. "Apart from the 9-degree circular halo, an 18-degree and perhaps a 35-degree circular halo were also present at times," he adds. All of these "odd-radius" halos are caused by icy pyramids.
The display quickly became even more varied. Edens saw at least a dozen different kinds of luminous rings and arcs, enumerated in his complete description of the event. "The display was highly transient," he notes. "Not only did the cirrus move fairly swiftly in the sky, but the halos - especially the odd-radius halos - appeared to come and go over the course of just a few minutes." But what a few minutes it was!
Comment: This is a combination of a highly electrified moon plasmasphere and a specific type of diamond dust in our atmosphere with a cosmic origin, see previous comments related to the not-so-rare-these-days atmospheric phenomena.
Strange
orange clouds appeared over Ankara, Turkey at December 14, 2012
hainanwel.com, 17th December 2012
On the Internet appeared the video, which, according to the author of this video, shows the unusual and strange
orange cloud (UFO?) in the form of concentric rings of orange color, which appeared over the city of Ankara in
Turkey at December 14, 2012, THE VIDEO:
Comment: This video is stunning almost shocking IF it is genuine... It reminds me of something similar that fell down from the sky at Toulouse, France.... that caused a sensation too, see below:
-
Strange orange clouds appeared over Ankara, Turkey at December 14, 2012
YouTube, 14th December 2012
-
A
UFO Transient Luminous Event in the Toulouse Sky?
SOTT, 20th January 2009 Flashback!
"The object was seen in Villemur, Montauban and the Tarn department.
The remnant of a spacecraft? A meteorite fragment? Little green men?
Questions remain after a mysterious apparition literally pierced the sky in the area North of Toulouse, last Saturday in the late afternoon. Several persons witnessed what most of them would later describe as a "big red light falling from the sky". The object was not only seen in Montauban, but also around the Tarn border and in Villemur-sur-Tarn, where Martine, a resident who was coming home from shopping, reported:
"Suddenly, I saw a kind of red square shining like fire. The object formed an arc in the sky. It was really, really big. I'm a a rational person and I don't believe in aliens. But I'd like to know what it was..." So would many witnesses. In Toulouse's Jolimont observatory, Laurent Koechlin saw the strange UFO too. He confirms, while remaining cautious.
Comment: Unfortunately at the moment, the media are stating that any new phenomenon in the sky is a UFO. On first appearance, this looks like a Transient luminous event, the halo shape puts it in the category of elves, normally found at 100 km in the region known as the 'E region' of the ionosphere and scientists have only recently acknowledged this new phenomena since 1989 and are still cataloguing new variants.
Insane Auroras but NO geomagnetic storm
spaceweather.com, 12th December 2012
ARCTIC LIGHTS: There was no geomagnetic storm last night, but around the Arctic Circle a geomagnetic storm is not required to produce auroras. Last night, photographer Mike Theiss was traveling along the Dempster Highway just north of Eagle Plains, Canada, when the sky erupted in color. The sign in the foreground marks the latitude of the Arctic Circle:
It was insane," he says. "Lights danced all over the sky for 3 hours! I've never seen anything like it."
Theiss was located beneath Earth's
auroral oval, a doughnut of light circling the North Pole where auroras sputter on and off even when geomagnetic storms are at low ebb. Displays like this could occur on any night of northern winter. Such auroras are all we can expect for the next few days as NOAA forecasters estimate a mere 5% chance of geomagnetic storms.
Comment: So...... No geomagnetic storm, but spectacular green/purple/red 'rare' auroras that not so long ago were only reserved for the most fierce geomagnetic storms... Well, something has to have changed then! I think Earth's magnetic field must have opened up like a sieve with big holes and allowed in more of the solar wind...
The skies are alive with dusty plasmas....
spaceweather.com, 10th December 2012
AMAZING STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS OVER EUROPE:
"These are nacreous clouds," explains atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Of all Earth's clouds they are most spectacular, and a very rare treat for skywatchers."
"For up to an hour after sunset or before dawn they glow like eerie electric discharges or gas jets in the darkening sky, their filmy shapes slowly curling and uncurling with intense shifting colors. They are composed of tiny ice crystals more than twice as high as ordinary clouds, 9-16 miles up, in the stratosphere and form at temperatures of minus 85 Celsius and below. The crystals are all of similar size and they diffract the high altitude sunlight to make the colours."
"Search for nacreous clouds at high latitudes (e.g., Scotland, Scandinavia, Iceland, Northern US) in winter and preferably downwind of mountains," Cowley advises. "They like stormy weather that perhaps creates gravity waves to loft the necessary moisture to make them upwards across the tropopause into the stratosphere. Once seen they are never forgotten!"
Comment: I have reported these not so rare colourful clouds before but the extra detail from an expert here is very interesting, like:
-
they glow like eerie electric discharges or gas jets in the darkening sky
-
They like stormy weather that perhaps creates gravity waves to loft the necessary moisture to make them upwards
We have a mixture of legacy scientific terminology being used here. Presumably, in the future, atmospheric physicists will move on and explain the behaviour of plasma and electromagnetic forces in the Earth's atmosphere using the more coherent terminology of plasma physics. Regardless, these nacreous clouds are a sign of highly charged dusty plasmas in the atmosphere. Sunlight passing through highly charged dusty plasma produces the characteristic bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference.
A Chance that Sunspot AR1618 will deliver a X-class solar flare
spaceweather.com, 23rd November 2012
CHANCE OF STORMS:
NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% to 65% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Nov. 23/24 when a pair of CMEs is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The incoming clouds were propelled toward Earth by the recent eruptions of sunspot AR1618. Black Friday might be tinged red and green by the glow of high-latitude auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
SUNSPOT AR1618--UPDATE: Sunspot AR1618 has experienced some decay during the past 24 hours, but it is still potent. The sunspot's magnetic canopy has a 'beta-gamma-delta' configuration that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Because of the sunspot's nearly central location on the solar disk, any eruptions today would be Earth-directed. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
A sunspot, like AR1618, is a vast island of magnetism floating on the surface of the sun. Magnetic fields bubble up from the sun's interior to form the sunspot's dark cores much like a Pacific island forming from the lava of an undersea volcano. Phil Scherrer, a member of the Solar Dynamics Observatory science team at Stanford Unniversity, has prepared an 8-day movie showing the genesis if AR1618:
A
companion movie shows the region's magnetic development. In the movie, which Scherrer made using data from SDO's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), white denotes positive polarity, black denotes negative. Places with mixed polarities are where the magnetic fields can
reconnect and erupt, producing solar flares.
Comment: Earth is the way of direct fire and some are quite nervous...
Sunspot 1618 facing Earth
Giant Sun eruption captured in NASA video
Space.com, 17th November 2012
Do Red Auroras Mean Extreme Geomagnetic Conditions Now Exist On Our Planet?
spaceweather.com, 16th November 2012
RED AURORAS:
Auroras are usually green, and sometimes purple, but seldom do sky watchers see much red. The geomagnetic storm of Nov. 13/14 was different. It produced auroras with a distinctly rosy hue. David E. Cartier, Sr. photographed the phenomenon near Marsh Lake, about 40 km east of Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory.
"I was amazed by the deep scarlet color, which was immediately recognizable to the unaided eye," says Cartier. Similar splashes of candy-cane red were spotted over
Norway,
Wisconsin, and
Michigan.
The apparition might be related to
rare all-red auroras sometimes seen during intense geomagnetic storms. They occur some 300 to 500 km above Earth's surface and are not yet fully understood. Some researchers believe the red lights are linked to a large influx of low-energy electrons. When such electrons recombine with oxygen ions in the upper atmosphere, red photons are emitted. At present, space weather forecasters cannot predict when this will occur.
Comment: So we have now gone from 'rare' purple auroras becoming common to the appearance of 'rare' red auroras appearing in more southernly locations, that previously only appeared during extreme geomagnetic storms. Red auroras appearing after only mild geomagnetic storming implies there is some new geomagnetic factors influencing what is happening on this planet... Btw, there is a 'new' type of spaceweather made up of jets of high-energy electrons streaming from the sun known as electron strahl... The science is still very very new... As I wrote in my workbook
The Electrotechnics of the Heavens these 'strahl electrons' maybe a missing link that Electric Sun theorists needs to make their theory all tie up with the observations of electrical activity on the Sun, but the fact that Earth is getting a new abundance of these strahl electrons that arrive in beams is more than interesting, it suggests the magnetosphere has deteriorated another notch...
An Active Sun
spaceweather.com, 16th November 2012
HUMONGOUS ERUPTION: A truly gigantic explosion happened on the sun today. Magnetic fields snaking halfway across the sun's southern hemisphere erupted in tandem, producing a prominence so big, it doesn't fit inside this image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO):
The blast hurled a CME into space, but the cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth. A
movie of the event, prepared by Steele Hill of the Goddard Space Flight Center, shows magnetic fields in concerted motion across an expanse of solar "terrain" more than 700,000 km wide.
Observations by SDO have shown that such wide-ranging eruptions are not uncommon on the sun--the great
Global Eruption of August 2010 being the iconic example.
Comment: I wonder what we could have expected if the prominence/CME had been flung towards Earth... I am sure we will finally find out when one extra big strip of the surface of the sun peels off and eventually hits us. I think we can only expect serious real trouble if solar flares and CME's are combined to provide a volley of shots over say a two week period after Earth's magnetic field is left in shreds or totally disappears on the daylight side..... i.e. far worse than its usual dilapidated state....
CME Impact & 'Sick' Auroras over Tromso
spaceweather.com, 14th November 2012
GEOMAGNETIC STORM UNDERWAY: A moderately strong (Kp=6) geomagnetic storm is underway on Nov. 13/14 as Earth passes through the wake of a CME that swept past our planet yesterday. [...]
Ole C. Salomonsen sends this picture of the display over Tromsø, Norway:
"Tonight was a spectacular night," he says.
"This for sure was the strongest auroras so far this season. The magnetograms at the University of Tromsø went bananas! Tromsø is a city of about 70,000, so it has a lot of light pollution; even so, the auroras were clearly visible standing in the middle of the city. It was just sick!"
"Once a year the Arctic cathedral in Tromsø is lit in blue to put focus on diabetes. This was the first night it was lit blue this year, and man was I lucky to get one of the strongest outbreaks I have ever seen just above it.
This was just a mindblowing visual and astronomical experience. I came home with almost 500GB of photos."
Comment: Well, I lived in Norway for about 8 years and Norwegians are not known for this level of excited rhetoric, not even concerning auroras.... Personally, I think it is 'sick' that so many people are oblivious to the fact our world is changing due to dramatic changes in the cosmic environment... Btw, for over 14 years I have lived in countries where English is popular but obviously not the first language, so I know full well that you can forget subtlety in the use of the English language...
CME Impact
spaceweather.com, 1st November 2012
CME IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 31st around 1530 UT. The
impact jolted Earth's polar magnetic field and sparked auroras around the Arctic Circle. Frank Olsen sends this picture from Sortland, Norway:
For a while, the auroras were bright enough to see despite the glare of the nearly-full Moon. "Conditions were excellent for aurora photography," says Olsen. "I captured the Moon with the Pleiades on top and Jupiter to the left. And just over the mountain, Orion was rising."
Auroras, Auroras, Auroras....
spaceweather.com, 10th October 2012
Aurora over Olnes Pond, Alaska (October 8, 2012) – Timelapse
The Watchers, 10th October 2012
Perfect magnetic storm brings spectacular Northern Lights show
A seven-hour 'perfect magnetic storm' produced what was said to be the best Northern Lights show of the year last night. [UK]
The Telegraph, 9th October 2012
Amazing Auroras: Northern Lights of October 2012 (Photos)
Space.com, 8th October 2012
Radar anomalies picked up on the Australian BOM network – September 27, 2012
The Watchers, 27th September 2012
Comment: It seems that weather radars are picking up large bubbles of plasma leaking into Earth's atmosphere from space. Scintillation is nothing new but presumably, the magnitude of the problem is an issue.
X-Rated Solar Flare
Spaceweather.com, 23rd October 2012
X-FLARE: Earth orbiting satellites have just detected an
X1-class solar flare (Oct. 23 @ 0322 UT) from big sunspot AR1598. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Radiation from the flare created waves of ionization in the upper atmosphere over Asia and Australia (the daylit side of Earth) and possibly HF radio blackouts at high latitudes. It is too soon to say whether the blast also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space.
NOAA Space Weather Alerts
NOAA SWPC, 23rd October 2012
Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3
Serial Number: 1972
Issue Time: 2012 Oct 23 0501 UTC
CONTINUED ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
Continuation of Serial Number: 1971
Begin Time: 2012 Oct 09 1015 UTC
Yesterday Maximum 2MeV Flux: 8070 pfu
Potential Impacts: Satellite systems may experience significant charging resulting in increased risk to satellite systems.
Space Weather Message Code: SUMX01
Serial Number: 82
Issue Time: 2012 Oct 23 0336 UTC
SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded X1
Begin Time: 2012 Oct 23 0313 UTC
Maximum Time: 2012 Oct 23 0317 UTC
End Time: 2012 Oct 23 0321 UTC
X-ray Class: X1.8
Location: S10E53
NOAA Scale: R3 - Strong
Potential Impacts: Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point.
Radio - Wide area blackout of HF (high frequency) radio communication for about an hour.
Space Weather Message Code: SUM10R
Serial Number: 567
Issue Time: 2012 Oct 23 0331 UTC
SUMMARY: 10cm Radio Burst
Begin Time: 2012 Oct 23 0315 UTC
Maximum Time: 2012 Oct 23 0316 UTC
End Time: 2012 Oct 23 0318 UTC
Duration: 3 minutes
Peak Flux: 620 sfu
Latest Penticton Noon Flux: 156 sfu
Description: A 10cm radio burst indicates that the electromagnetic burst associated with a solar flare at the 10cm wavelength was double or greater than the initial 10cm radio background. This can be indicative of significant radio noise in association with a solar flare. This noise is generally short-lived but can cause interference for sensitive receivers including radar, GPS, and satellite communications.
Space Weather Message Code: ALTXMF
Serial Number: 183
Issue Time: 2012 Oct 23 0318 UTC
ALERT: X-Ray Flux exceeded M5
Threshold Reached: 2012 Oct 23 0318 UTC
NOAA Scale: R2 - Moderate
Potential Impacts: Area of impact centered on sub-solar point on the sunlit side of Earth. Extent of blackout of HF (high frequency) radio communication dependent upon current X-ray Flux intensity. For real-time information on affected area and expected duration please see http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/drap/index.html.
Blinking Auroras...
spaceweather.com, 14th October 2012
WEEKEND AURORAS: A solar wind stream buffeted Earth's magnetic field over the weekend, igniting a G1-class geomagnetic storm that lasted more than
15 hours. Auroras with rare
pulsations,
colors, and
cloud-
piercing luminosity were sighted all around the Arctic Circle. In Lofoten, Norway, the lights formed an exquisite green butterfly:
If this picture confuses you,
turn it sideways to see it the same way photographer June Grønseth did. "I took more than 400 pictures last night," says Grønseth. "The butterfly and
the heart were my favorites."
NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of continued storms tonight as solar wind effects begin to wane. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.
Comment: Well, that is interesting, the auroras can switch on and off...
Pulsating aurora is a rare not yet fully understood phenomena. It occurs usually at the end of an active aroral night, early in the morning. The ground-current monitor at the Polarlightcenter in Laukvik, Lofoten, woke me up this morning and I went outside to take pictures of the fast moving cloud-shape pulsating aurora. It acts like switching on and off the light continuously.
Pulsating Aurora - by Jan Koeman on October 14, 2012
More Purple Auroras
spaceweather.com, 8th October 2012
CME
HITS EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD, SPARKS AURORAS: As
expected, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's
magnetic field on Oct. 8th at approximately 0500
UT. The impact sparked a moderate (Kp=6) geomagnetic
storm and Northern Lights in the USA as far south
as
Kansas
and
Colorado.
In New Auburn, Wisconsin, photographer Justin Phillips
recorded this rare self-portrait backlit by auroras:
Comment:
More purple auroras.....
M-class solar flare measuring M2.3 erupted today – G2 class geomagnetic storm in progress
The Watchers, 8th October 2012
Purple Auroras over the Southern States AGAIN!
spaceweather.com, 2nd October 2012
SUBSIDING STORM: A strong (Kp=7) geomagnetic storm sparked by a CME impact on Sept. 30th is subsiding now. At maximum, during the early hours of Oct. 1st, Northern Lights descended as far south in the United States as
Michigan,
Maryland,
Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin,
Ohio,
Montana,
Minnesota,
Washington,
Idaho,
Illinois and
South Dakota. Even California experienced some auroras. Tim Piya Trepetch caught a patch of sky turning purple over the Lassen Volcanic National Park:
Comment: Purple auroras used to be quite rare but that has changed in recent years due to the type of energy that is busting through a weaken magnetosphere. Earth is responding with auroras being pushed quite far south which also used to be a rare event, but now is happening on a frequent basis.
CME impact & G3 class geomagnetic storm
The Watchers, 1st October 2012
The September 28th Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) impacted Earth's magnetic field at 22:20 UTC last night, September 30, 2012 sparking strong Geomagnetic storms at high latitudes today. The Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) sharply deviated to -35 nT during the impact. A weak interplanetary shock wave hit Earth at 10:20 UTC followed by a stronger CME strike at approximately 22:20 UTC. Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating in response to these impacts.
Comment: NOAA issued a G3 alert for a strong impact after spaceweather.com made the mistake of reporting a weak impact.... Solar particles are travelling at different speeds but the laggards packed a severe punch and there was some big ground currents recorded in Northern Norway, see details below.
Space Weather - Another "Crack" in the Magnetosphere
spaceweather.com, 13th September 2012
POLAR LIGHTS: In the Arctic, springtime ended months ago. Nevertheless, butterflies have been sighted. This one appeared last night over Grøtfjord, Norway: [...] This Northern Lepidoptera appeared when a "kink" in the interplanetary magnetic field drifted past Earth, briefly opening a crack in our planet's magnetosphere.
Solar wind poured in to fuel the display. At the peak of the storm, the Arctic Circle was glowing from
Scandinavia to
Iceland to
Canada. Earth's polar magnetic field is settling down again, but more Arctic auroras are in the offing, especially on Sept 14-15 when a solar wind stream is expected to reach our planet.
Comment: Another "crack" in the magnetosphere where Earth's magnetic field opens up to the cosmic elements...
Magnificent Outburst
NASA SDO, September 2012
Sparked by a medium-sized (C-class) flare, a long, magnetic filament burst out from the Sun, producing one of the best shows that SDO has seen (Aug. 31, 2012). Viewed in the 304 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the filament strand gets stretched outwards until it finally breaks and heads off to the left. Some of the particles from this eruption did hit Earth with a glancing blow on Sept. 3, generating some beautiful aurora. The video clip covers four hours of activity.
Video of August 31 CME traveling through space
The Watchers, 11th September 2012
Space Weather - Double Asteroid Flyby but Another asteroid hits Jupiter
spaceweather.com, 11th September 2012
DOUBLE ASTEROID FLYBY: A pair of big, near-Earth asteroids will fly by the Earth-Moon system on Sept. 14th.
2012 QG42 is a 300-meter space rock that comes from the inner asteroid belt; it will pass 2.8 million km (7.4 lunar distances) from Earth.
2012 QC8 is even bigger, about 1.1 km in diameter, hailing from the vicinity of Jupiter; it will pass about 8.7 million km (22.7 lunar distances) from Earth.
Astronomers monitoring the incoming space rocks say they are glowing like 14th to 15th magnitude stars, which makes them good targets for advanced amateur telescopes.
Ephemerides: 2012 QG42,
2012 QC8.
EXPLOSION ON JUPITER: Apparently, something hit Jupiter during the early hours of Sept. 10th (11:35 UT), igniting a ferocious fireball in the giant planet's cloudtops. Amateur astronomer Dan Peterson Racine, Wisconsin, saw it first through his Meade 12" LX200 telescope. "It was a bright white flash that lasted only 1.5 - 2 seconds," he reports. Another amateur astronomer, George Hall of Dallas, Texas, was
video-recording Jupiter at the time, and he confirmed the fireball with this video screenshot:
Comment: Everytime Jupiter gets hit and a massive eruption is seen by amateur astronomers, we are reminded of just how precarious things are these days as we know Earth is in the midst of an asteroid debris field... the space weather issue is getting very serious...
Space Weather - The Magnetic Ringing of Planet Earth
spaceweather.com, 6th September 2012
MAGNETIC UNREST: Earth's magnetic field is still
reverberating from a pair of CME impacts--a relatively strong blow on Sept 3rd followed by a lesser hit on Sept. 4th. The double strike ignited auroras around the Arctic Circle that are only slowly fading. Olivier Du Tré photographed this apparition over Red Deer, Alberta, on Sept. 5th:
"For the second night this week, the Northern Lights put on an awesome show over Alberta," says Du Tré. "At one point about 65%-70% of the sky above the farmlands to the NE of Calgary were lit up. It was incredible."
Comment: Massive bursts of solar energy from the sun have given us some more extreme auroras, but now the whole planet is ringing with magnetic energy and this might explain the preponderance of largish earthquakes in the last few days too...
Geomagnetic activity at normal levels while another CME impact expected
The Watchers, 5th September 2012
Space Weather - Stunning Purple Auroras
spaceweather.com, 4th September 2012
SUBSIDING STORM: A geomagnetic storm that began on Sept. 3rd when a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field is
fitfully subsiding. The impact at 1200 UT (5 am PDT) induced significant
ground currents in the soil of northern Scandinavia and sparked bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. Ole C. Salomonsen photographed the display over Naimakka, Finland, on Sept. 4th:
Comment: I am wondering when the mainstream will start to query why the previously rare red and purple auroras are now commonplace.... This is the latest USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity:
Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity
SDF Number 247 Issued at 2200Z on 03 Sep 2012
IIA. Geophysical Activity Summary 02/2100Z to 03/2100Z:
Geomagnetic field activity ranged from unsettled to major storm
levels with a brief period of severe storm levels detected at high
latitudes. An interplanetary shock passed the ACE spacecraft at
03/1123Z indicating the arrival of the Halo CME observed on 31
August. This was followed by a geomagnetic sudden impulse at
03/1214Z (28 nT, Boulder USGS Magnetometer). Field activity
increased to major storm levels during 03/1200 - 1500Z following the
sudden impulse, then decreased to active levels for the rest of the
period, with minor storm periods detected at high latitudes. The greater than 10 MeV proton event at geosynchronous orbit
that began at 01/1335Z, reached a maximum of 60 pfu at 02/0850Z, and
was in progress as the period ended.
IIB. Geophysical Activity Forecast: Geomagnetic field activity is
expected to be at unsettled to active levels on day 1 (04 September)
with a chance for minor storm levels as CME effects wind down. Quiet
to unsettled conditions are expected during days 2 - 3 (05 - 06
September) with a chance for active levels due to arrival of
Earth-directed CMEs observed on 02 September along with a
co-rotating interaction region ahead of a coronal hole high-speed
stream (CH HSS). The CH HSS is expected to commence on day 3. The
greater than 10 MeV proton event at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to end on day 1
I think it is fair to say that Earth's magnetic field did get slapped by the solar filament eruption on the 31st August.
Space Weather - Auroras in Bright Moonlight
spaceweather.com, 3rd September 2012
NORTHERN
LIGHTS: Consider it a preview.
Last night, Göran Strand photographed a curtain
of green auroras beaming through moonlit clouds
over Frösön, Sweden:
"These were the first auroras of the season here in the northern part of Sweden," says Strand. "Too bad it was cloudy, but the aurora was big and high and easy to see even in the bright moonlight."
The source of the display was a minor fluctuation in the solar wind. Now, a major disruption is in the offing. A CME en route to Earth could produce intense auroras around the Arctic Circle when it arrives during the late hours of Sept. 3rd. Stay tuned to the aurora gallery for photos of the display.
Comment: I have never seen a bright green aurora generated on what looks like a cloudy day, but in fact, this photo was taken in moonlight... Well, it is a fact that the moon is extremely bright due to a highly electrified atmosphere that it has only recently acquired, but it seems this aurora is also exceptionlly strong in order to compensate...
Update
CME IMPACT, GEOMAGNETIC STORM: As expected, a coronal mass ejection hit Earth on Sept. 3rd at approximately 1200 UT (5 am PDT). The impact induced significant
ground currents in the soil of northern Scandinavia and sparked bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. A moderate geomagnetic storm is
underway.
Ghostly Night-Shining Clouds Get Their Glow from Meteor Smoke
Space.com, 3rd September 2012
Rare and mysterious clouds that are so bright they can be seen at night have mystified people since they were first observed more than a century ago, but scientists have now discovered a key cosmic ingredient for these night-shining clouds: "smoke" from meteors as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Blue-white clouds that eerily glow in the twilight sky are called noctilucent clouds, or NLCs. They typically form about 50 to 53 miles (80 and 85 kilometers) above ground in the atmosphere, at altitudes so high that they reflect light even after the sun has slipped below the horizon. [...]
In a new study, scientists found that noctilucent clouds have an extraterrestrial link.
"We've detected bits of 'meteor smoke' imbedded in noctilucent clouds," James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., said in a statement. "This discovery supports the theory that meteor dust is the nucleating agent around which NLCs form."
Comment: The article forgets to mention that noctiliucent clouds are electrified as the rarefied layer of Earth's upper atmosphere where noctilucent clouds form is "one hundred million times dryer than air from the Sahara desert." It is only possible to 'see' blue ice crytals 50 to 53 miles up because they are charged and producing an electric glow....
Space Weather Alert
NOAA / Space Weather Prediction Center, 1st September 2012
Space Weather Message Code: WATA30
Serial Number: 96
Issue Time: 2012 Sep 01 1536 UTC
WATCH: Geomagnetic Storm Category G2 Predicted
Highest Storm Level Predicted by Day:
Sep 02: None (Below G1) Sep 03: G2 (Moderate) Sep 04: None (Below G1)
THIS SUPERSEDES ANY/ALL PRIOR WATCHES IN EFFECT
Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 55 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Power grid fluctuations can occur. High-latitude power systems may experience voltage alarms.
Spacecraft - Satellite orientation irregularities may occur; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites is possible.
Radio - HF (high frequency) radio propagation can fade at higher latitudes.
Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state.
Space Weather Message Code: ALTPX1
Serial Number: 296
Issue Time: 2012 Sep 01 1349 UTC
ALERT: Proton Event 10MeV Integral Flux exceeded 10pfu
Begin Time: 2012 Sep 01 1335 UTC
NOAA Scale: S1 - Minor
Potential Impacts: Radio - Minor impacts on polar HF (high frequency) radio propagation resulting in fades at lower frequencies.
Comment: So..... NOAA expects that the aurora may be seen as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state.... it is now obvious that something drastic has happened to Earth's magnetic shielding....
Space Weather - Big CME Blast, Proton Storms & Chance of Solar Flares
spaceweather.com, 1st September 2012
CHANCE OF FLARES: Sunspot AR1560 has more than quadrupled in size since August 30th, and now the fast growing active region is directly facing our planet:
movie. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-class solar fares during the next 48 hours.
MAGNIFICENT ERUPTION: A filament of magnetism curling around the sun's southeastern limb erupted on August 31st, producing a coronal mass ejection (CME), a
C8-class solar flare, and one of the most beautiful movies ever recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
The explosion hurled a CME away from the sun traveling faster than 500 km/s (1.1 million mph). The cloud, shown here, is not heading directly toward Earth, but it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on or about September 3rd. This date is preliminary and may be changed in response to more data from coronagraphs on the Solar and Heliophysics Observatory (SOHO). Stay tuned.
Comment: I expect some space weather related incidents in the next few days.... especially if the CME manages to slap Earth's magnetic field hard....
Spectacular filament eruption, waves of ionization and Sun's polar magnetic field shift for end of August
The Watchers, 1st September 2012
Massive Filament Eruption / Earth Directed CME Sep 1, 2012
YouTube, 1st September 2012
Comment: Since Earth is now experiencing a proton storm, I thought I would provide some more info on cosmic rays. There is also links below that provide the technical details of how computers are becoming much more vulnerable to error. Neutron monitors measure by proxy the intensity of cosmic rays striking the Earth, and its variation with time, but it is an enigma as to why scientists use the term neutrons which by definition have no charge and where 90% of cosmic rays are protons with a positive charge, (another example of hermetic jargon) . This is some info from Wikipedia:
A neutron monitor is a ground-based detector designed to measure the number of high-energy charged particles striking the Earth's atmosphere from outer space. For historical reasons the incoming particles are called "cosmic rays", but in fact they are particles, predominantly protons and Helium nuclei. Most of the time, a neutron monitor records galactic cosmic rays and their variation with the 11-year sunspot cycle and 22-year magnetic cycle. Occasionally the Sun emits cosmic rays of sufficient energy and intensity to raise radiation levels on Earth's surface to the degree that they are readily detected by neutron monitors. They are termed "Ground Level Enhancements" (GLE).
Neutron monitor
:Product: 0901RSGA.txt
:Issued: 2012 Sep 01 2200 UTC
# Prepared jointly by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA,
# Space Weather Prediction Center and the U.S. Air Force.
#
Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity
SDF Number 245 Issued at 2200Z on 01 Sep 2012
IA. Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from 31/2100Z
to 01/2100Z: Solar activity was low. The largest flare in the past
24 hours was a C3/SF flare at 0039Z from Region 1554 (N15W94).
Region 1560 (N03W05) remains the largest on the disk and the most
complex with a magnetic configuration of a beta-gamma.
IB. Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be low
with a chance for moderate.
IIA. Geophysical Activity Summary 31/2100Z to 01/2100Z:
Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to unsettled levels. A
greater than 10 MeV proton event, associated with the disappearing
filament on 31 August, began at 01/1335Z, reached a maximum flux of
41 pfu at 1925Z, and remained above threshold at the time of this
report.
IIB. Geophysical Activity Forecast: Geomagnetic activity is
expected to be quiet to unsettled on 2 September. Activity is
expected to increase to minor storm levels with a chance for major
storm levels on 3 September with the arrival of the 31 August CME.
High latitudes have a chance of reaching severe storm levels on 3
September. On day 3 (4 September), activity is expected to decrease
to mostly unsettled conditions as CME effects wane.
Joint
USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity
SDF Number 245 Issued at 2200Z on 01 Sep 2012
The Wikipedia info may be out of date as the latest info from scientists suggests CRs could be iron particles and that is of great interest to those who like the theory of The Theory of Multidimensional Reality by proposed by Douglas Vogt and Gary Sultan that I introduce in my book
Tuning the Diamonds.
Cosmic-ray theory unravels
Astrophysicists ponder whether ultra high-energy particles really do come from the centre of galaxies
Nature News, 22 February 2010
"But at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Washington DC on 16 February, the Auger team began to backpedal on its original conclusions. The group revealed new data that weaken the link between the high-energy particles and the AGN.
Compounding the mystery, the team has found evidence that these highest-energy cosmic rays might be iron nuclei, rather than the protons that make up most cosmic rays. "There are some puzzles," says Paul Sommers, co-spokesperson for the Auger collaboration at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. "We're not close to writing the final chapter."
Links
Neutron monitor: Hourly and 24-hour averaged indices of cosmic ray activity for last 27 days.
Moscow neutron monitor variation for last 30 days
corresponds to 10-20 GeV primary cosmic rays.
Daily Moscow neutron monitor variation for last 670 days.
On the need to use error-correcting memory
lambda-diode.com, 2010-02-05
Updates on the need to use error-correcting memory
lambda-diode.com, 2010-02-07
"Apparently we receive, at sea level, around 20 atmospheric neutrons per square centimeter per hour."
There are some good links and to more information...
Summer Auroras at Twilight
spaceweather.com, 30th August 2012
SUMMER
AURORAS: "Aurora season is
back here in the Northwest Territories of Canada,"
reports Francis Anderson of Tuktoyaktuk NWT. "Although
it does not get completely dark yet, the northern
lights are once again visible. This first photo
of the aurora was taken on August 25th from atop
a pingo with a fairly large cumulonimbus cloud towards
the southern horizon, which was flashing lightning
every five or so minutes."
Comment: Maybe this can be defined as a twilight aurora, but traditionally auroras are only supposed to be seen when it is completely dark. This suggests that the intensity of auroras has become stronger.... Hence, my prediction of regular daylight auroras due to additional solar energy bursting through Earth's weakened cosmic shielding is looking good.
Moondogs are go!
spaceweather.com, 28th August 2012
WATCH OUT FOR MOONDOGS: The moon is waxing full this week, which means it's a great time to look out for
moondogs. They appear 23 degrees from the moon, splashes of
light shining with the colors of a rainbow, but
they are
not
rainbows. Barry Starling of Histon UK photgraphed
this specimen on August 25th:
Unlike rainbows, which are caused by raindrops, moondogs are caused by ice crystals. Even during the summer, high clouds are cold enough for water in them to crystallize. When moonlight shines through the icy clouds, voila!--a moondog. High-altitude ice crystals can also make moon haloes and pillars, so watch out for them, too.
Comment: According to Wikipedia moondogs are quite rare:
A moon dog or moondog (scientific name paraselene, plural paraselenae, i.e. "beside the moon") is a relatively rare bright circular spot on a lunar halo caused by the refraction of moonlight by hexagonal-plate-shaped ice crystals in cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Moondogs appear to the left and right of the moon 22° or more distant. They are exactly analogous to sun dogs, but are rarer because to be produced the moon must be bright and therefore full or nearly full. Moondogs show little color to the unaided eye because their light is not bright enough to activate the cone cells of humans' eyes.
Wikipedia: Moon Dogs
So, it is significant that moondogs may become more common as the moon's plasmasphere has become a glowing plasma i.e. it has become highly electrified, (many people have noticed but see archives for the official news from NASA). What's more, there is more cosmic dust flooding Earth's atmosphere and this acts as the nuclei for the ice crystals that produce an assortment of affects that I have explained many times before. The main point to consider is that rare atmospheric effects are related to the geometry of the ice crystals that are formed by only previously rare types of cosmic dust.
First Auroras of the Season? Part 2
Spaceweather.com, 9th August 2012
AURORA BOREALIS: According to NOAA, a slow-moving coronal mass ejection (CME) delivered a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on August 8th. Solar wind signatures barely registered the impact; nevertheless, the Arctic Circle lit up with auroras. Pilot
Brian Whittaker photographed the display through the window of an aircraft flying 35,000 feet above Churchill, Canada:
"It was terrific to see a sky full of green Northern Lights and electric-blue noctilucent clouds side by side over the Hudson Bay," says Whittaker. "Eventually, as the sun rose, the auroras faded. For a while, the noctilucent clouds filled the entire sky in their place before they too faded with day break."
For the record, the airplane was 11 km high. The noctilucent clouds were 83 km high. The auroras were ~150 - 200 km high.
First Auroras of the Season?
Spaceweather.com, 8th August 2012
FIRST AURORAS OF THE SEASON: After a long summer of midnight suns and starless nights, the first auroras of the new season are showing up in Alaska. Todd Salat photographed the kick-off in Fairbanks on August 6th:
"From 1 am to 1:30 am local time I took these photos of the northern lights dancing above the Fairbanks city lights," says Salat. "Although the nights still do not get completely dark in the far northern latitudes, the deep blue twilight skies proved dark enough to make the auroras stand out. And at a balmy 55° F, it was quite a treat to be watching the lights in t-shirt weather."
Comment: This is a surprise... According to NASA, aurora season is supposed to be in spring and autumn as auoras are twice as likely as winter and summer.... It was only three weeks ago that the UK Telegraph (17th July) reported
Norfolk village given rare glimpse of Northern lights [UK]. Oh well, I was predicting 'visible' auroras all year round and it looks like I could soon be proven right.
Noctilucent Clouds Are caused by Space Dust
Spaceweather.com, 3rd August 2012
ELECTRIC-BLUE
CLOUDS: A bank of electric-blue
noctiluent clouds swept across Iceland on August
2nd, producing a vivid display of luminous ripples
and tendrils over Reykjavik:
"These are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, located at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometres," says photographer Iurie Belegurschi. "It was a beautiful display."
New data from NASA's AIM spacecraft prove that noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are seeded by space dust. The tiny ice crystals that NLCs are made of nucleate around "meteor smoke" wafting through the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. Not only do these clouds look alien, they really are alien. A new video from NASA explains the research.
Comment: This is major confirmation that recent changes in atmospheric conditions are being caused by space weather in the form of meteoric and cosmic dust, but of course we were warned by the European Space Agency (ESA)that Earth would be flooded by 2012 and it looks like they got this right.... watch the NASA ScienceCast video link.
ESA sees stardust storms heading for Solar System
ESA Science News, 18 August 2003
Until ten years ago, most astronomers did not believe stardust could enter our Solar System. Then ESA's Ulysses spaceprobe discovered minute stardust particles leaking through the Sun's magnetic shield, into the realm of Earth and the other planets. Now, the same spaceprobe has shown that a flood of dusty particles is heading our way.
Since its launch in 1990, Ulysses has constantly monitored how much stardust enters the Solar System from the interstellar space around it. Using an on-board instrument called DUST, scientists have discovered that stardust can actually approach the Earth and other planets, but its flow is governed by the Sun's magnetic field, which behaves as a powerful gate-keeper bouncing most of it back. However, during solar maximum - a phase of intense activity inside the Sun that marks the end of each 11-year solar cycle - the magnetic field becomes disordered as its polarity reverses. As a result, the Sun's shielding power weakens and more stardust can sneak in.
What is surprising in this new Ulysses discovery is that the amount of stardust has continued to increase even after the solar activity calmed down and the magnetic field resumed its ordered shape in 2001.
Scientists believe that this is due to the way in which the polarity changed during solar maximum. Instead of reversing completely, flipping north to south, the Sun's magnetic poles have only rotated at halfway and are now more or less lying sideways along the Sun's equator. This weaker configuration of the magnetic shield is letting in two to three times more stardust than at the end of the 1990s. Moreover, this influx could increase by as much as ten times until the end of the current solar cycle in 2012.
ScienceCasts: Meteor Smoke Makes Strange Clouds
Redorbit News, 2nd August 2012
"A key ingredient of Earth's strangest clouds does not come from Earth. New data from NASA's AIM spacecraft proves that "meteor smoke" is essential to the formation of noctilucent clouds."
This explains that noctiliucent clouds are a result of space weather in the form of meteor dust with methane gas....
Mysterious burning ash confounds Outjo fire brigade
All Africa, 2nd August July 2012
Very Fast CME - NOT Earth Directed
Spaceweather.com, 23rd July 2012
VERY FAST FARSIDE CME (UPDATED): On
July 23rd, a coronal mass ejection (CME) blasted
away from the sun with
rare
speed:
3400 km/s or 7.6 million
mph. CMEs moving this fast occur only once every
~5 to 10 years. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
recorded the cloud's rapid departure from the sun
The source of the CME was sunspot AR1520, which sparked many bright auroras earlier this month when it was on the Earthside of the sun. Now, however, the active region is transiting the sun's farside so this blast was not geoeffective. One can only imagine the geomagnetic storms such a fast CME could produce if it were heading our way.
Comment: We have to remember that solar scientists are trying to predict the behaviour of the Sun to protect satellite and satellite communications, national power grids, modern electronics and computers etc, but super fast CMEs adds another level of difficulty. Solar scientists may need to make important decisions when time really matters, but with superfast CMEs, this means that when one hits the ACE satellite, 1 million miles from Earth, the usual 45 - 60 minutes warning is reduced to only 15 minutes or less....
Green Glowing Skies
Spaceweather.com, 23rd July 2012
NOT AURORAS: On some nights when the moon is new and city lights are far away, the sky turns green. But it's not the aurora borealis--it's
airglow. Brian Larmay photographed the phenomenon on July 20th from the countryside near Beecher, Wisconsin:
"The airglow was intense enough to see visually," says Larmay. "I decided to create a brief animation of this phenomena with an 8mm fisheye lens which can be seen here."
Although airglow resembles the aurora borealis, its underlying physics is different. Airglow is caused by an assortment of chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere. During the day, ultraviolet radiation from the sun ionizes atoms and breaks apart molecules. At night, the atoms and molecules recombine, emitting photons as they return to normal. This process produces an aurora-like glow visible on very dark nights.
July 20th must have been a good night for airglow, because Warren Justice of Manitoba, Canada, saw it too.
Comment: I am wondering if this report is significant after other recent reports of green skies seen during the day.
Norfolk village given rare glimspe of Northern lights [UK]
Villagers in Norfolk have had a rare glimpse of the night sky being illuminated by a spectacular display of the Northern Lights.
The Telegraph, 17th July 2012
The natural phenomenon known as Aurora Borealis is usually only seen occasionally in Britain by people in Scotland the far north of England.
But a huge solar flare from the sun meant that the florescent multi-coloured lights were seen far further south in the early hours of Monday.
Chris Bell, a meteorologist at Norwich-based Weatherquest, photographed the aurora at 1am on Monday over countryside at Foxley near Fakenham, Norfolk.
Comment: Purple auroras in the south of the United Kingdom when aurora season is supposed to be over? See previous comments on this subject.
Stormy Geomagetic Conditions and Purple Auroras
Spaceweather.com, 15th July 2012
AURORA ALERT: A geomagnetic storm is
in progress as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from a CME strike on July 14th. Sky watchers in Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska and northern-tier US states from Maine to Washington should be alert for auroras after nightfall.
Observing tip: The hours around local midnight are usually best for aurora-spotting.
When the CME first arrived on July 14th, its effect appeared weak. However, conditions in the wake of the CME have since become stormy. On July 14-15 Northern Lights appeared in the United States as far south as California,
Colorado,
Missouri,
Utah,
Wisconsin,
Iowa,
Minnesota,
Washington,
Illinois,
Kansas,
Nebraska,
Michigan and
Arkansas.
Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, the aurora australis has been sighted in New Zealand, Australia, and directly above the South Pole itself.
Comment: Auroras directly above the poles is rare and has only been associated with a new type of space weather....
CME Impact, Geomagnetically induced Currents & Expected Auroras
Spaceweather.com, 14th July 2012
CME IMPACT: As expected, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field on July 14th at approximately 1800 UT or 11 am Pacific Daylight Time). A geomagnetic storm is brewing in the wake of the impact. At the moment, conditions appear favorable for auroras over high-latitude places such as Canada, Scandinavia, Antarctica and Siberia. It is too early to say whether the storm will intensify and bring auroras to middle latitudes as well.
The arrival of the CME shook Earth's magnetic field, which in turn induced electrical currents in the ground at Arctic latitudes. Rob Stammes measured the effect from his magnetic observatory in Lofoten, Norway: Stammes has observed many CME strikes from his laboratory at the Polar Light Center. He
says this one was not particularly strong, at least in terms of ground currents. Whether this presages an equally muted display of Northern Lights remains to be seen.
Federal agencies differ on potential impact, timing of solar flare
NJ.com News, 13th July 2012
A solar flare is expected to ignite a moderate geomagnetic storm across the planet Saturday, which can have impacts on satellites and the region's power grid, but until late today the two federal agencies that monitor such space phenomena couldn't agree about when and how severe the storm could be.
Officials from the NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration both issue alerts and forecasts when the sun releases a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic energy in the form of plasma, known as a coronal mass ejection, following a solar flare. [...]
But early today, the two agencies were a world apart on their predictions.
To NOAA, the flare was no big deal, a minor to moderate event that may produce dazzling Aurora Borealis as far south as the U.S.-Canadian border. NASA, on the other hand, was predicting a far more severe event, one that could potentially wreak havoc on the nation's power grid and disrupt satellite communications across the globe. [...]
The two agencies eventually agreed the situation was not likely to cause major problems. Nonetheless, utility companies and electrical grid operators were preparing.
Comment: It is not the solar flare that is the issue which only took about 8 minutes and 30 seconds to arrive, it is the coronal mass ejection that analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab estimate to arrive at 09:17 UT (5:17 am EDT) on Saturday, July 14th. see
www.spaceweather.com. So why would NASA scientists start to panic? Maybe, we can surmise that NASA knows things that NOAA scientists do not... Well,
even though the CME is HUGE and directed at Earth, surely they don't think Earth's shielding is not strong enough to cope? Hmmm..... Well, thinking about this situation, this is the kind of scenario that is enough to make space scientists agitated because Earth's magnetic field has already taken a pounding over the last fortnight and therefore is already quite weak.... This might explain why electrical grid operators are being advised not to take any chances. When the CME hits the ACE satellite, space scientists will get some CME & IMF data to help them make some important decisions and then 30-45 minutes to take action.
Foul Smell On Plane Leaves Five In Hospital
Rome-bound US Airways plane is diverted to Philadelphia International Airport after an on-board odour causes sickness.
Sky News, 11th July 2012
A plane in the US has been diverted after a foul odour on-board made passengers and crew members feel ill.
Five people were taken to hospital after the aircraft landed at Philadelphia International Airport, according to fire department officials.
Local reports said some passengers had vomited and a further seven had felt sick as a result of the smell.
Comment: Space has many different smells, but it is mostly made up of the burning odor of hydrocarbons. Astronauts report that space smells like burned or fried meat... I would imagine that with the recent solar actvity, turbulence in the ionosphere was allowing space to penetrate deeply into our atmosphere or that air had become highly ionised and passengers were detecting the smell.
FYI: What Does Space Smell Like?
Popular Science, 8th February 2011
"Though a pure, unadulterated whiff of outer space is impossible for humans (it's a vacuum after all; we would die if we tried), when astronauts are outside the ISS, space-borne compounds adhere to their suits and hitch a ride back into the station. Astronauts have reported smelling "burned" or "fried" steak after a space walk, and they aren't just dreaming of a home-cooked meal."
Major, Earth directed and long duration X1.4 solar flare erupted from Sunspot 1520
The Watchers, 12th July 2012
"A major and long duration solar flare peaked at 16:52 UTC on July 12, 2012. The source of this solar flare is Region 1520. A Type II and IV Sweep frequency events were recorded. Strong R3 radio blackout on the sunlit side of the Earth was recorded. This solar flare produced Earth directed bright Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)!"
Are we safe from the sun? Solar flares keep on getting stronger - with latest hotspot the size of 15 Earths strung together
Daily Mail, 10th July 2012
The sun is a tempestuous mistress - and her outbursts are becoming more and more violent as the weeks go on.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted the summer's first 'X' solar flare on Friday - a huge outburst from the sun right at the top of the scale.
This came on the back of 12 'M' flares in just six days, with a M6.1 flare knocking out radio signals across the planet on Thursday - hinting at the destruction the sun could reign on our technology if Earth takes a full blast across its blow.
The sunspot group behind the flares - named as AR1515 - stretches across 118,681 miles (191,000km) of the sun's surface.
This makes it's width more than 15 Earths set end to end, said NASA solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young
Comment: The recent activity on the sun is still mild compared to repeated extreme blasts that we received in the famous Halloween storms in late October/November 2003... The difference now is Earth's magnetosphere (external magnetic shielding) seems to have deteriorated significantly...
Auroras & Geomagnetic Storms
Spaceweather.com, 9th July 2012
X-FLARE! Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th. Because the sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a
forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.
The explosion also strobed Earth with a pulse of extreme UV radiation, shown here in a movie recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: The UV pulse partially ionized Earth's upper atmosphere, disturbing the normal propagation of radio signals around the planet.
Monitoring stations in
Norway,
Ireland and
Italy recorded the sudden ionospheric disturbance. Finally, solar protons accelerated by the blast are swarming around Earth. The radiation storm,
in progress, ranks "S1" on NOAA space weather scales, which means it poses no serious threat to satellites or astronauts. This could change if the storm continues to intensify.
Auroras & Geomagnetic Storms
Spaceweather.com, 9th July 2012
AURORA SURPRISE: July 9th began with a brief but beautiful display of auroras over North America. "I had gone out to search for
noctilucent clouds, but instead I found these Northern Lights," says Robert Snache of Rama First Nation, Ontario:
The source of the display was not an explosion on the sun, but rather a fluctuation in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The
IMF near Earth tipped south, briefly opening
a crack in our planet's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and ignited the lights.
Comment: OK, I actually decided to look up the details on the aurora season and it looks like spaceweather.com were expecting a lull between spring and autumn (fall) when auroras are twice as likely as winter-summer... see link below. I am wondering what the stats are, but here we have a beautiful purple and green aurora over North America (Canada) in July, a time when noctilucent clouds can now be expected too... Well, auroras signify geomagnetic storms and we are getting plenty of those all year round.... At some point I expect to see a report that informs us that more humans are being affected.
Spring is Aurora Season
NASA News, 4th March 2012
"Auroras are much more than just pretty lights in the sky. Underlying each display is a potent geomagnetic storm with possible side-effects ranging from satellite malfunctions in orbit to power outages on terra firma. Telecommunications, air traffic, power grids and GPS systems are all vulnerable.
In a society that relies increasingly on space technology, understanding these storms is vital."
Welcome to active solar July! X-flare, geomagnetic storming, new sunspots
The Watchers, 7th July 2012
As expected, a giant sunspot AR1515 unleashed a strong X1.1 solar flare on July 6th at 23:08 UTC. This event triggered a 10cm Radio Burst and a Type IV Sweep Frequency Event. Preliminary analysis indicates the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) associated with this event is not headed directly at Earth, it looks to be headed south and to the west. This should have little impact on Earth.
Comment: I expect to hear more reports of glitches due to the proton storm that accompanied the X1.1 flare.
Yesterday's mythology is today's reality.... But few wonder why...
Spaceweather.com, 23rd June 2012
GREEN
FLASH, BLUE FLASH: Green flashes
at sunset are rare. Indeed, they were once thought
mythological. Blue flashes are rarer still. On June
21st Göran Strand of Frösön, Sweden, saw them both
in a single sunset:
"Tonight the weather was incredibly
clear and fine, so I went out to photograph the
sunset--and this was the result," says Strand.
"The time interval between the first and last
frames is 1 minute and 14 seconds."
Green
flashes are formed when the prismatic
action of the atmosphere splits the setting
sun into basic R-G-B colors. Temperature inversions
create a
mirage, magnifying the green into an eye-catching
flash.
Blues
flashes are formed in the same way, but they
are generally harder to see than green flashes,
because blue flashes blend into the surrounding
blue sky. When the air is exceptionally clear, however,
the blue flash emerges.
Comment: As usual there is no explanation for an atmospheric phenomenon that was so rare it was considered
'mythological but is now a common occurence... I don't think I have recorded all of these recent green and blue flashes, butmost certainly they are telling us that there has been a CHANGE in the Earth's atmosphere and most likely
related to the amount and type of dust, the same dust that is providing us with lots of other interesting and 'rare'
atmospheric phenomena. Yes, I know what has been written here about the air being "exceptionally clear" but I don't believe it....
More Auroras: Purple, Blue, Red, Orange and Green! What Exactly is Going On?
Spaceweather.com, 17th June 2012
GEOMAGNETIC
STORM ALERT: Geomagnetic storms
are circling Earth's poles in the wake of a double
CME impact on June 16th. According to analysts at
the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the hit strongly
compressed Earth's magnetic field, directly exposing
some geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma.
After nightfall in North America, blue and purple
auroras spread along the US-Canadian border. Justin
Phillips sends this photo from New Auburn, Wisconsin:
"Fireflies added to the colors
of extremely bright pink and purple auroras in west
central Wisconsin," says Phillips. "What
a night!"
Solar wind conditions in the wake
of the CME favor continued disturbances. NOAA forecasters
estimate a 55% chance of more high-latitude geomagnetic
storms during the next 24 hours.
Comment: It looks like space weather forecasters got this badly wrong and I wonder how many satellites have been affected. This is what spaceweather.com said yesterday:
WEAK IMPACT: As expected, an interplanetary shock wave associated with the "double CME" of June 13-14 hit Earth's magnetic field today around 0900 UT. The impact was weak. The solar wind speed in the wake of the CME barely upticked to 400 km/s, and the impact did not trigger a geomagnetic storm.
Spaceweather.com, 16th June 2012
The photos are quite interesting but also odd.... blue auroras seen above green auroras is also supposed to be rare, but what about
blue beams seen in the auroras at Wisconsin?
Here is the NASA's Integrated Space Weather Analysis System, Magnetopause Standoff for the 15-17th, you can click the image and pick up the latest on page 3 of the Magnetopause cygnet selection.
Lots of interesting Space Weather
Spaceweather.com, 14th June 2012
ASTEROID
FLYBY: Newly-discovered asteroid
2012 LZ1 is flying past the Earth-Moon system today.
At closest approach on June 14th (23:10 UT), the
500 meter-wide space rock will be 14 lunar distances
(3.3 million miles) away. A team of astronomers
led by Ernesto Guido photographed the incoming asteroid
on June 13th:
images.
CME
TARGETS VENUS, EARTH MARS: Active
sunspot AR1504 erupted on June 13th at 1319 UT,
producing a long-duration M1-flare and hurling a
CME into space. According to analysts at the Goddard
Space Weather Lab, the cloud will deliver a glancing
blow to three planets: Venus on June 15th, Earth
on June 16th, and Mars on June 19th. This animation
shows the likely progression of the cloud:
NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% -
30% chance of geomagnetic storms when the cloud
reaches Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should
be alert for auroras.
ELECTRIC-BLUE
NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Data from NASA's
AIM spacecraft show that noctilucent clouds (NLCs)
are like a great "geophysical light bulb."
They turn
on every year in late spring, reaching almost
full intensity over a period of no more than 5 to
10 days. News flash: The bulb is glowing. Flying
photographer Brian Whittaker photographed these
NLCs over Canada on June 13th:
"I was very happy to see my first
noctilucent clouds of 2012," says Whittaker.
"They were visible to the north for about 3
hours as we flew between Ottawa and Newfoundland
at 35,000 feet."
These electric-blue clouds are hanging
85 km above Earth's surface, at the edge of space
itself. Their origin is still largely a mystery;
various theories associate them with space dust,
rocket exhaust, global warming--or some mixture
of the three. One thing is sure. They're baaack
... for the summer of 2012.
Comment: There is lots of interesting space weather converging all at once.... We have yet another asteroid spotted at the last minute, well what else is knew but 14 LD is 14 lunar distancces away so no worries... Spaceweather.com has a very very short memory because up until about 2006 noctilucent clouds were confined to polar regions and NOBODY knows why they have been creeping towards the equator... I have not seen a photo of noctilucent clouds combined with auroras caused by a CME, but maybe that will become more common too....
'Unusually large' asteroid the size of a city block to buzz past Earth
Brisbaine Times, 15th June 2012
Geomagnetic Storm and Purple Aurora
Spaceweather.com, 12th June 2012
SUBSIDING
GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A minor geomagnetic
storm that crested during the opening hours of June
12th is
subsiding
now. At maximum, it ranked 5 on the 0-to-9 K-index
scale of magnetic disturbances and turned the skies
purple over Dawsonville, New Brunswick:
"The auroras lasted just a couple
of minutes, [but they were beautiful]," says
photographer Bart Firth. "They were blue to
purple in color."
The storm was sparked by an episode
of "negative IMF."
That is, south-pointing magnetic fields in the solar
wind opened a crack in Earth's magnetosphere; solar
wind poured in and fueled the display. NOAA forecasters
estimate a 10% to 20% chance of similar storms in
the next 24 hours as the solar wind continues to
blow.
Comment: Yesterday, NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms during the next 48 hours as a pair of CMEs pass by Earth, they thought there was a possibility of these CMEs delivering "glancing blows" to our magnetic field. So, after telling us in early April that aurora season was nearly over, we get another superb purple and supposedly rare aurora 8 weeks later in June.... I wonder whether we will get to the stage of aurora season all year round and some auroras that are so bright they can be seen in daylight too because Earth's magnetic field has become so weak.
Astrophoto: Double Crepuscular Rays
Universe Today, 10th June 2012
I'm not sure how often this happens, but I've never seen it before: crepuscular rays on both the west and east horizon at the same time – or crepuscular and anti-crepuscular rays occurring simultaneously. I'm staying out in the wilds of Minnesota this summer, with great views of both horizons and captured these images last evening, June 9, 2012. The word crepuscular means "relating to twilight," and these rays occur when objects such as mountain peaks or clouds partially shadow the Sun's rays, usually when the Sun is low on the horizon. These rays are visible only when the atmosphere contains enough haze or dust particles so that sunlight in unshadowed areas can be scattered toward the observer.
Comment: This is just another sign of a lot of cosmic dust in the atmosphere, I have already seen one complaint today of the moon being BLOOD RED for a short time.
The word crepuscular means "relating to twilight," and they occur when objects such as mountain peaks or clouds partially shadow the Sun's rays, when the Sun is low on the horizon. These rays are visible only when the atmosphere contains enough haze or dust particles so that sunlight in unshadowed areas can be scattered toward the observer.
The light rays are actually parallel, but appear to converge to the Sun due to "perspective," the same visual effect that makes parallel railroad tracks appear to converge in the distance.
Crepuscular Rays Seen From Space
by Nancy Atkinson on October 31, 2011
I need to consult Corliss....
Powerful solar tsunami along with yesterdays impulsive M3-Class solar flare
The Watchers, 4th June 2012
New sunspot 1496 unleashed an impulsive M3-Class solar flare on June 3rd at 17:55 UTC. The explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth, although this conclusion could be revised by further analysis.
The powerful solar tsunami was produced at the blast site as well. Fortunately, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft was monitoring the Sun from New Mexico when the flare occurred and he video-recorded the event. Below you can click on image to see the video he recorded.
Comment: I noticed the spike of the x-ray flux and the K-index for geomagnetic activity around Earth that hit Kp=5. It seems there was an immediate impact on Earth, but I was still surprised because I would only expect this kind of impact from an X-rated flare... The movie animation of the sunspot shows a little puff of CME rather like smoke which is also unusual to see too...
Purple Skies Over the UK?
Spaceweather.com, 23rd May 2012
PURPLE SKIES:
Earth is entering a high-speed solar wind stream, and this is causing geomagnetic activity at high latitudes. First contact with the stream on May 22nd turned the sky over Cumbria, United Kingdom, deep purple:
"The sky was bright because of twilight, but we could still see these faint auroras," says photographer Jon Cooper.
Comment: I have got to the stage I don't even know what to say anymore.... so, it's not just auroras occuring now when aurora season is supposed to be over, we are now getting purple auroras over the UK and we are not even talking in regions that are the furthest north.... This is what Astro Bin (whoops! Astro Bob) had to say about the 'rarity' of purple auroras earlier this month.... Purple aurora majesties.
When are people going to really start paying attention to what is happening above our heads and why?
Solar activity intensifies and solar scientists get nervous
Spaceweather.com, 9th May 2012
SOLAR ACTIVITY INTENSIFIES: Huge sunspot AR1476 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing something even stronger. The sunspot's 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field harbors energy for X-class flares, the most powerful kind. Earth is entering the line of fire as the sunspot rotates across the face of the sun. Solar flare alerts: text, phone.
Earlier today, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico detected strong shortwave radio bursts coming from the sunspot. Click to hear the "solar static" that roared out of his loudspeaker:
"The strongest burst so far occured around 1631 UT on May 9th," reports Ashcraft. "I am observing at 28 MHz and 21.1 MHz. As I send this note I am hearing more bursting, indicating powerful magnetic dynamism within active region 1476."
Solar radio bursts are caused by plasma instabilities that ripple through the sun's atmosphere in the aftermath of powerful flares. With AR1476 poised for more eruptions, this 'radio activity' is likely to continue for days. Stay tuned.
Comment: Sometimes solar radio bursts (a burst of radio energy from the Sun) can act like noise and interfere with frequencies used by GPS and other navigation systems. Thus we read:
Radio waves produced during solar flare eruptions on the Sun can cripple the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other communication technologies here on Earth, scientists say. [...]
This solar radio bursts occurred during the solar minimum, yet produced as much as 10 times more radio noise than the previous record," said Dale Gary, a physicist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. "This was enough to swamp GPS receivers over the entire sunlit side of Earth."
The scientists predict that larger solar radio bursts, expected during heightened periods of solar activity, called the solar maximum, will disrupt GPS receiver operations even further.
"The size and timing of this burst were completely unexpected and the largest ever detected," said Anthea Coster of the MIT Haystack Observatory. "We do not know how often we can expect solar radio bursts of this size or even larger."
Solar Radio Bursts Could Cripple GPS
Space.com, 4th April 2007
The issue is that the Sun keeps on surprising solar scientists, but affecting GPS on the whole of one side of the planet is a serious issue as our modern technological world relies heavily on GPS for many different types of use, but obviously planes in the air need constant communications for navigational support.
TWO
INCOMING CMEs: A pair of solar eruptions
on May 7th hurled coronal masss ejections (CMEs)
toward Earth. Forecast
tracks
prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather
Lab suggests that clouds with arrive in succession
on May 9th at 13:40 UT and May 10th at 07:54 UT
(+/- 7 hours). The double impact could spark moderate
geomagnetic storms. Spaceweather.com 8th May 2012
NORTHERN
LIGHTS: A solar wind stream hit
Earth's magnetic field during the late hours of
May 8th, stirring geomagnetic activity and auroras
over parts of Europe. Graeme Whipps photographed
the display from Scotland:
"A fantastic green and purple
arc was clearly visible in the late twilight glow
over Aberdeenshire," says Whipps. "I wasn't
expecting this!" The full-sized
image also frames a meteor slicing through the
Northern Lights. Spaceweather.com 9th May 2012
Auroras will not go away - Is this a sign that Earth's magnetosphere is failing? – Part II
spaceweather.com, 26th April 2012
AURORA WATCH:
Earth's magnetic field is reverberating from three days of buffeting by a high-speed solar wind stream. Since April 23rd, auroras have been photographed in more than a dozen US states including Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Washington, and of course Alaska. Kameron Barge sends this picture from the North Fork of the Flathead River in Glacier National Park, Montana:
Comment: This is quite incredible to be having such geomagnetic storms and highly respectable auroras so far south (kansas & Northern Ireland?) based on a few passing CMEs that did not even hit us directly...
For those who may be new to this website it is highly recommended that you watch the documentary-drama
Perfect Disaster: Solar Storm (2006), where it describes how we can tell that space weather is getting much worse and what has to done in the event authorities think THE BIG ONE is coming.... As I have documented over the last four years, we are experiencing all the 'signs', even down to the satellites dropping out of the sky on a regular basis...
Auroras will not go away - Is this a sign that Earth's magnetosphere is failing?
spaceweather.com, 25th April 2012
QUIETING STORM, MORE TO COME:
Earth's magnetic field is quieting after two straight nights of mild to moderate geomagnetic storms. At the height of the disturbance on April 23-24, auroras were spotted in more than a dozen US states including Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Colorado. On the threshold of the Arctic Circle in Anchorage, Alaska, the Northern Lights pierced the glow of the midnight sun: [...]
More auroras may be in the offing. A minor CME is en route to Earth, due to arrive on April 26th. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% to 30% chance of geomagnetic storms.
Comment: So instead of auroras disappearing we get lots of auroras spotted in more than a dozen US states.... from a few insignificant CMEs when Earth was not even hit directly (auroras were caused by Earth passing through the wake of a CME), according to spaceweather.com.... Whatever, I was most impressed with this photograph of auroras in Giants Causeway, Ireland. This is a long way south for PURPLE auroras from a so-called 'mild' geomagnetic storm...
Co. Antrim Coast, Giant's Causeway and Ballintoy Harbour Quite frankly, if this keeps up, some will have to come to the conclusion that something fundamental has changed with Earth's magnetosphere....
Spectacular Solar Eruption - Biggest Prominence in Years
spaceweather.com, 16th April 2012
"SPECTACULAR EXPLOSION: Magnetic fields on the sun's northeastern limb erupted around 17:45 UT on April 16th, producing one of the most visually-spectacular explosions in years. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths:
Comment: The video is good... there is more comment on the 17th
here.
Another Crack in the Magnetosphere - Auroras in the United States
spaceweather.com, 13th April 2012
LUCKY MAGNETIC STORM: A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on April 12th, sparking a geomagnetic storm (Kp=5) that peaked during the early hours of Friday the 13th. Northern Lights were sighted over the USA as far south as Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In Beecher, Wisconsin, photographer Brian Larmay made this lucky shot of the International Space Station flying through the display:
The auroras were very impressive here in northeastern Wisconsin," says Larmay.
Another photographer, Shawn Malone of Marquette, Michigan, sends this report from the shores of Lake Superior: "The sky was ablaze in light. Northern lights were so bright they lit up the beach! It was an amazing night."
Comment: Well, I did note on the 9th April 2012, spaceweather.com provided the snippet
LAST AURORAS OF THE ARCTIC SEASON? ... Apparently, we are approaching the end of the aurora season, but all this means is that the sun makes the auroras harder to see.... Well, I think I will make a prediction that spaceweather.com will soon be reporting
daylight auroras because we have already had a report back in August 2010. Like so many atmospheric manifestations, rarely is something brand new, the difference with the extreme conditions on this planet is the 'rarity' happening on a weekly basis. The reason why is that our little planet is getting severely buffeted by space weather. For those who are long termers, please note we are now getting some
severe so-called magnetic reconnection events that are so bad those who are less educated are shouting they think the magnetosphere is now temporarily reversing...
Space Weather Summary - 2MIN News Apr12
YouTube, 12th April 2012
This is a nice space weather summary. Note the worldwide seismic station data, I would say that was more than scary.... I am wondering if we got hit with a gravitational wave...that caused the huge Indonesian earthquakes, at the moment, the timing [with a GRB] does not fit...
Hard to believe, but this was taken at NIGHT: Stunning and rarely photographed 'Moonbow' captured over Victoria Falls
Daily Mail, 10th April 2012
I am wondering if the red in the sky on the 2nd photo is aurora or even sprites, I suppose they could be some strange clouds....
More Cosmic 'Diamond' Dust in the Air
spaceweather.com, 9th April 2012
ANTARCTIC MOON HALO:
In the icy lands around the south pole, ordinary things take on an exotic quality. Count moon haloes among them. On April 5th, Sam Burrell photographed this specimen rising above the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica:
"Around midnight, the air on the Brunt Ice Shelf the air was filled with diamond dust," says Burrell. "As the moon rose, we caught this show."
Diamond dust is the atmospheric optics term for tiny, jewel-like crystals of ice. They form on cold days in the air near ground level. When they catch the rays of the low-hanging sun or moon, the results can be spectacular. "In this single display, we could see a moon halo, moondogs, and hints of a moon pillar," says Burrell.
Comment: I don't have time to check the archives, but it looks like we have the same distortion affects caused by cosmic 'diamond' dust that makes the moon look like a diamond. This is similar to the affect that is being routinely seen with the Sun ..... truly fantastic, see
archives for more information.
Earth's Leaky Magnetosphere - Spontaneous Auroras
spaceweather.com, 2nd April 2012
SPONTANEOUS AURORAS:
Solar activity is low, but solar storms are not always required to make auroras appear around thee Arctic Circle. Ole C. Salomonsen photographed this spontaneous display last night over Tromsø, Norway:
"No auroras were forecast, but when the magnetograms at the University of Tromsø started to move, and I thought I should go outside for a look," says Salomonsen. "At times the display was very vivid and strong!"
Comment: So....... no major spaceweather events, but there are cracks in the magnetosphere were the solar wind can leak through and create auroras... that's nice...
Earth's Leaky Magnetosphere - Sprite Season Starts Already?
spaceweather.com, 2nd April 2012
SPRITE SEASON BEGINS:
The first sprites of summer are starting to appear in the skies of North America. The strange thing is, summer is almost three months away. "Sprite season is beginning early this year," says Thomas Ashcraft, who photographed these specimens on March 30th from his observatory in New Mexico: [...]
Sprites are electrical discharges that come out of the top of thunderclouds, opposite ordinary lightning bolts which plunge toward Earth. Sprites can tower as high as 90 km above ground. That makes them a form of space weather as they overlap the zone of auroras, meteors, and noctilucent clouds.
Comment: So we have gone from atmospheric scientists ignoring this phenomena before 1989, to "surprise" that electrical conditions in the atmosphere have intensified enough such that sprite "season" will soon be all year round constant activity... Well as far as I am concerned, we are all Tibetan monks now.... nobody has to go live in a monastery on an Himalayan mountain to benefit from this "special" energy... I am also pleased that spaceweather.com tells us that this is a type of spaceweather as I had worked this out without their help when I published my book back in 2006.
3/27/2012 -- Dozens of plumes erupt - 10 states at the same time -1815UTC / 215pm CDT
YouTube, 27th March 2012
Comment: As NASA have already informed us, there are massive plumes of plasma being admitted from the ground that are so massive they are interfering with GPS signals. See
Strange Space Weather over Africa
Nov. 13, 2007: Something strange is happening in the atmosphere above Africa and researchers have converged on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the phenomenon. The Africa Space Weather Workshop kicked off Nov. 12th with nearly 100 scientists and students in attendance.
The strange phenomenon that brings all these people together is the ion plume–"a newly discovered form of space weather," says University of Colorado atmospheric scientist and Workshop co-organizer Tim Fuller-Rowell.
Researchers liken the plumes to smoke billowing out of a factory smokestack–except instead of ordinary ash and dust, ion plumes are made of electrified gas floating so high above ground they come in contact with space itself. "The plumes appear during geomagnetic storms and they can interfere with satellite transmissions, airline navigation and radio communications," says Fuller-Rowell. Indeed, it is their effect on GPS signals that led to the discovery of plumes over North America just a few years ago. [End Quote]
In my research I talk about a Planetary Refresh where New Energy is replacing Old Energy and this is causing a massive flux that humans are susceptible too if they don't have strong and protective energy fields. It is a fact that precursor seismic signals affect biological processing, I think these plumes are so new that there would not have been any research done but I could be wrong.
Purple haze: Rare display of Northern Lights captured above remote Scottish island
Daily Mail, 19th March 2012
More 'rare' atmospheric events happening every other week....
Solar filament snapping closeup SUN 2012 03 12
YouTube, 13th March 2012
March 11-12 2012: all 88 frames from SDO 171, SW quadrant, excluding blank frames. Cropped from 4096x4096 full frame images. Shows dark filament and solar prominence cavity. Filament "snaps" resulting in a "splash" on the surface
Charged vortices erupting from the Sun can form relatively dark cavities.
Thunderbolts.info, 20th September 2012
Recently, much has been made about a so-called "black sphere connected to the Sun." Outlandish claims that a solid object was in close solar orbit, "feeding" off the photospheric plasma, have appeared in various places on the internet. [...] Laboratory experiments with a positively charged sphere show that a plasma torus forms above the Sun's equator. Electric discharges known as sunspots sometimes bridge the torus with the Sun's middle and lower latitudes, punching holes through the photosphere.
Comment: What Stephen Smith is saying is that he thinks the black cavity is associated with plasma torus ring around the equator. Some Electric Universe/Sun theorists believe the data from SOHO ultraviolet images proves the torus exists and I did briefly mention this in my e-book
The Electrotechnics of the Heavens. Yes, I know Smith then moves on to explain plasma behaviour generally on the Sun, but a large dark filament hanging off the main torus connected to a sunsport by a bridge of plasma would be a nice simple Electric Sun explanation... We will see how long it takes for mainstream astronomers to come up with the same explanation... Any bets?
Link Between Coronal Mass Ejections And The Sun's Interior Motion
Red Orbit, 25th September 2012
Biggest solar storm in years races toward Earth
AP News, 7th March 2012
Space.com: Waste Dump Discovery
Spaceweather.com, 9th March 2011
LAST
WATER DUMP: At the end of the day
on March 8th, a strange curlicue-shaped comet appeared
in the twilight skies of Europe. It was space shuttle
Discovery performing a dump of waste water. Crystals
of flash-frozen urine and other substances glistened
in the sunlight, putting on an impressive show.
Click on the image to view of a movie of the event
recorded by Jens Hackmann of Weikersheim, Germany:
Discovery is circling Earth just a few more times
before it lands--and retires--at the Kennedy Space
Center on March 9th. If it's dark where you live,
you might be able to see Discovery one last time.
more images: from Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands
Comment: Seriously, that seems to be a lot of water... and I am finding the "official" explanation hard to believe,
there have been similar strange sightings classed as "urine dumps" before....
the 2nd image icon comes from the pictures taken in The Netherlands.
Video: Water dump of Discovery
YouTube, 8th March 2011
Zap! Solar Wind Shockwave Produces Ground Currents in Lofoten, Norway
spaceweather.com, 2nd March 2012
MAGNETIC DISTURBANCE UNDERWAY:
A disturbance is rippling through Earth's polar magnetic field on March 1st. "The magnetometer needles are swinging here in Norway," reports Rob Stammes of the Polar Light Center in Lofoten. Bright auroras have been sighted in Sweden and Finland.
spaceweather.com 1st March
FIRST AURORAS OF MARCH:
A magnetic disturbance rippled around the Arctic Circle during the waning hours of March 1st, sparking bright auroras just as night fell over northern Europe. "The show was stunning and amazing," says Thomas Albin, who sends this picture from Esrange, Sweden:
"There were three different colors visible and the dynamics of the lights were incredible!" he says.
A medium-speed solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field. By itself, this was not enough to explain what happened. The extra ingrediant was the IMF: the interplanetary magnetic field near Earth tilted south, opening a crack in our planet's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and fueled the display.
Comment: Tell me I am dreaming.... there is no CME arrival but big ground currents are being recorded in Lofoten and we are not allowed to look at the POES data.... surely it must be a coincidence.... But wait, I have saved previous charts when a CME did arrive, I can't do a proper comparison because they have
chopped the top of the spike off for the 1st March data but surely, that has to be a coincidence too.... Folks, the 26th September 2011 event was called "a magnificent shockwave from a CME" but the spike was only 3350 (milli Amps?), but the 1st March NONE CME related event was chopped off at about 4100 (milli Amps?) and this most have been a severe magnificent shockwave...
Look here for the
1st March 2012 NO CME surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway 24th Jan 2012 CME related surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway that signaled the CME's arrival and here,
22nd Jan 2012 CME related surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway .
26th September 2011 CME related surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway ,
28th December 2010 CME related surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway (G1 geomagnetic storm)
The only comparison is the 14th February 2012 event and they chopped that too, but they called it a solar wind shockwave....see
14th February 20102 Solar Wind shockwave surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway this is a shockwave that happened a few days later on the 18th,
18th February 20102 Solar Wind shockwave surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway.
Oh yes, this is wild.... I have been watching for 4 years and either this has only just started happening or space weather watchers are monitoring much more closely and data is being made more widely available...
If this keeps up, more susceptible people will end up picking up an accent or a foreign language overnight... the confusion of languages will turn from a trickle to a flood see archives. See Best of the Blog -
Brain, Mind & Evolving Consciousness. Please note you heard it here first from Susan Joy Rennison aka Joyfire at www.susanrennison,com 3rd March 2012. After 7 years of pointing out that the Mayan Elders were referring to the arrival of space weather, I am telling you that the metaphysical community were getting messages for years to sort their energy fields out because people needed protection and we are now starting to see why... If you live on planet Earth you require a strong personal plasma field but getting that is not so easy, it is not specifically bank balance related, even though there are many who will demand cash and tell you whatever you want to hear...
Yet Another 'Rare' Atmospheric Phenomena - The Blue Flash
spaceweather.com, 1st March 2012
BLUE FLASH: We've all heard of the green flash, the fleeting emerald light that sometimes appears just above the setting sun. Once thought to be a fable, the green flash was popularized by Jules Verne in his 1882 novel "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray). Now it is generally known to be real.
But what of the even rarer blue flash? Turns out, that's real too. Peter Rosén photographed one from Stockholm, Sweden, on Feb. 29th:
"I was shooting the sunset when, suddenly, just as the sun was about to disappear behind the treetops, there was a mighty blue flash," says Rosén.
Blues flashes are formed in the same way as green flashes: a mirage magnifies tiny differences in the atmospheric refraction of red, green and blue light. Blue flashes are generally harder to see than green flashes, because blue flashes blend into the surrounding blue sky. When the air is exceptionally clear, however, the blue flash emerges.
Comment: Another 'rare' atmospheric phenomenon that can join the list of other rare atmospheric phenomena happening all the time these days...
The Magnetosphere Cracks Open and Lets In The Solar Wind
spaceweather.com, 28th February 2012
AURORA OUTBURST:
Last night, for the second night in a row, sky watchers around the Arctic Circle witnessed an impressive display of auroras. "I've never seen anything close to this," says Aaro Kukkohovi, who photographed an eruption of light over Lumijoki, Finland:
"What a fantastic burst of energy--like something blew a hole into Earth's magnetic field just above us!"
His rhetorical flourish isn't far wrong. The cause of the display was the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) tipping south and opening a 'crack' in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and fueled a G1-class geomagnetic storm. This was a high latitude event; the lights were brightest over Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland
Comment: Hmmmm.... I have been paying attention to the photographers who spend the time catching some of the most amazing images of the auroras. Please note: if you go through the archives, you will see they keep using superlatives... maybe the cracks in the magnetosphere are getting more extensive... the new crack' might explain why they were spraying up the skies in Switzerland too (28th) and the bright red 'dusty' sunsets over the last 2 days, because there has been no major space weather events and only a few minor flares...
The Canyon Fire On The Sun May Spark Geomagnetic Storm On Earth
spaceweather.com, 25th February 2012
INCOMING CME: Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say a coronal mass ejection (CME) will hit Earth's magnetic field on Feb. 26th at 13:30 UT (+/- 7 hr). The impact could spark a G2-class geomagnetic storm. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
CANYON OF FIRE: A magnetic filament snaking over the sun's northeastern limb rose up and erupted during the early hours of Feb. 24th. The eruption split the sun's atmosphere creating a "canyon of fire," shown here in a movie captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
The glowing walls of the canyon are
formed in a process closely related to that of
arcade
loops, which appear after many solar flares.
Stretching more than 400,000 km from end to end,
the structure traces the original channel where
the filament was suspended by magnetic forces above
the stellar surface.
As erupting magnetic filaments often
do, this one launched a coronal mass ejection (CME)
into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observary
recorded the expanding cloud: movie.
UPDATE:
At first this CME did not appear heading for Earth.
However, a new analysis by forecasters at the Goddard
Space Weather Lab shows that the cloud will indeed
hit Earth's magnetic field on Feb. 26th at 13:30
UT (+/- 7 hr): animated
forecast track. Geomagnetic storms are possible
when the CME arrives.
Comment: I was interested in this example of solar scientists changing their mind about where a CME was headed...
Auroras over the USA AGAIN!
spaceweather.com, 19th February 2012
AURORAS OVER THE USA: A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field during the waning hours of Saturday, Feb. 18th. Although the stream was expected, the bright auroras it produced were not. Northern Lights spilled across the Canadian border into several US states including Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, and Minnesota:
Travis Novitsky took this picture from Grand Portage, MN. "Last night, my girlfriend and I were just settling in to watch a movie when the auroras made a surprise appearance," he says. "A quick look out the back door of my house revealed that, yes indeed, the lights were out! We jumped in the truck and drove a few miles inland from Lake Superior. For the next hour and a half we were treated to a green glow peppered with dancing curtains of green, purple and red. It was a spectacular night."
In Fairbanks, Alaska, "the auroras were so bright they drew a crowd on my street," reports Brandon Lovett. At the Poker Flats Research Range outside of Fairbanks, researchers launched a suborbital rocket to investigate how auroras affect GPS systems. Lovett could see the rocket soaring into the heavens from more than 20 miles away.
This episode might have been amplified by the action of a co-rotating interaction region or "CIR." CIRs are transition zones between fast and slow solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking auroras. Local solar wind data suggest that Earth moved through a CIR around 1500 UT on Feb. 18th.
Comment: O.K. This is now starting to remind me of the warnings in the Discovery Channel documentary/drama
Perfect Disaster: Solar Storm (2006), when auroras are being regularly seen over the United States alongside all the other signs that something is majorly wrong... At least we know that the mystery "magnetic disturbances" could be related to the 5 GRBs that have been hitting us in the last week or so...
link.
Brief Aurora Timelapse - 18th February 2012, Nebraska [US]
YouTube, 19th February 2012
"We had a brief aurora display visible last night here in Northern Nebraska... all of these shots are at f/3.5 at 18mm, 1600 iso... and between 15 and 30 second exposures. It was fairly windy so the tripod was bouncing around some unfortunately. Last glad I finally got to see the lights, even briefly, for the 2nd time and it makes me ready for a real display!"
I note the bright red auroral lights with the green.... So, what exactly is going on? This geomagnetic storm hardly registered on the geomagnetix scale but Nebraska gets signs of dramatic auroral activity...
A Spy Satellite Disappears behind a plasma double layer?
spaceweather.com, 18th February 2012
SPY-SAT DISAPPEARING TRICK:
US spy satellite Lacrosse 5 occasionally confounds observers by disapppearing: In a matter of seconds, it can fade more than three astronomical magnitudes. Is this a deliberate form of stealth? Most experts think not, but no one outside of classified circles knows for sure what is going on.
To investigate, French astrophotographer Thierry Legault used his satellite-tracking telescope to photograph Lacrosse 5 as it sailed 490 miles above Paris on Jan. 15, 2012, and he caught the spysat in the act of disappearing:
"During the passage, the brightness of the satellite decreased by 10 times in only 4 seconds (a loss of 2.5 magnitudes)," describes Legault. "After 33 seconds of [dark flight] it regained its original brightness. Lacrosse 5 often shows this very singular behaviour, which is called by other observers (especially Marco Langbroek) the 'disappearing trick.'"
Other Lacrosse satellites do not perform the same trick, at least not to this extent, suggesting that the design of Lacrosse 5 differs from its predecessors. The fade is likely caused by some sort of self-shadowing--e.g., maybe some part of the spacecraft such as its solar panels casts a shadow over the main body when the spysat changes attitude.
Comment: I am not 100% sure... If you watch the video, I think this satellite is developing a plasma sheath (double layer) to isolate itself from environmental plasma that is at a different potential and explains why this just looks incredibly organic. The sheath just literally glows but amoeba-like and then quickly disappears once the difference with the external plasma potential lessens....Very interesting...
Aurora Whirlpools in the Sky
spaceweather.com, 16th February 2012
AURORA WHIRLPOOL: On Feb. 14-15, Arctic skies erupted with an unexpected display of auroras that veteran observers said was among the best in months. At the height of the event, a US Defense Meteorological Program satellite photographed a whirlpool of Northern Lights over the Bering Sea:
"A number of images from the DMSP F18 satellite captured the dramatic auroral event of the last couple nights," says analyst Paul McCrone, who processed the data at the US Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Monterey, CA.
The reason for the outburst is still not completely clear. It started on Feb. 14th when a magnetic disturbance rippled around the north pole. No CME was obvious in local solar wind data at the time; the disturbance just happened. Once begun, the display was amplified by the actions of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The IMF near Earth tipped south, opening a crack in our planet's magnetic defenses. Solar wind poured in and fueled the auroras.
Comment: This is quite an impressive image, but it is also of interest that we are told that there is no "official" explanation for why there was a "magnetic disturbance". Hence this could have been a hit from deep space, but there should be some astronomy alerts (GRBs, magnetar blasts) elsewhere as proof, ... things don't 'just happen', but I simply don't have time to check.
Update: 5 gamma ray bursts since the 11th February!
link. This might explain why there appeared to be fire in the sky over Tromso, Norway that puzzled me too
Another beautiful night with an colorful night-show which was breathtaking. Photographed in a Fiord near Tromso in Norway. Greetings Roger Schneider 15th February 2012
Sweetheart CMEs, Cracks, Geomagnetic Storms & Auroras
spaceweather.com, 15th February 2012
SUBSIDING STORM: A geomagnetic storm (Kp=5) that began during the early hours of Feb. 15th when the IMF tipped south is subsiding. Nevertheless, solar wind conditions remain favorable for high-latitude auroras. During the storm, Northern Lights descended as far south as Minnesota in the United States. Solar storm alerts: text, voice.
SWEET LIGHTS: For reasons not fully understood by forecasters, a disturbance rippled through Earth's magnetic field on Feb. 14th. Perhaps it was Cupid's arrow. The impact sparked some sweet lights around the Arctic Circle:
"On several occasions the sky was full of auroras from horizon to horizon," says photographer and aurora tour guide Chad Blakley of Abisko National Park, Sweden. "We had many happy couples celebrating with us tonight. Most of our guests agreed that it was the best Valentine's day that they had ever shared together."
There has been some speculation that the display was caused by a CME, launched from the sun on Feb. 10th and reaching Earth on Feb. 14th. However, there is no clear signature of a CME impact in local solar wind data.
Update: Geomagnetic activity intensified even more on Feb. 15th when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth tilted south, opening a crack in Earth's magnetic field. Solar wind poured in and fueled a G1-class geomagnetic storm, now subsiding.
Comment: Cupid's arrow my *"(/&n... See press release below from January 2010 where we are told that at times, we are relying on the Earth's atmosphere to protect us from cosmic rays when the Earth's magnetic field occasionally just dispppears.
Multiple rifts in Earth's magnetic shield
ESA Science, 20 Jan 2010
"The Earth's magnetic field protects our planet from most of the permanent flow of particles from the solar wind. Fissures in this magnetic shield are known to occur, enabling the solar wind to penetrate our near-space environment. A study based on data collected by the four ESA Cluster satellites and the CNSA/ESA Double Star TC-1 spacecraft, provides new insight into the location and duration of these ruptures in the Earth's magnetic shield.
This study reports the observation of fissures on the Sun-facing side of the Earth's magnetic shield – the dayside magnetopause. Fortunately, these fissures don't expose Earth's surface to the solar wind; our atmosphere protects us, even when our magnetic field doesn't. However, clear effects have been detected high in the upper atmosphere and in the region of space around Earth where satellites orbit."
Cosmic Log - Sun points a loaded gun at us
MSNBC Cosmic Log, 11th February 2012
"The prediction center's Facebook page reports that on Friday, the sun threw off a slow-moving coronal mass ejection, or CME – in the shape of a heart, no less. "A preliminary model run predicts this CME will arrive, appropriately enough, on Valentine's Day," NOAA reports. "
Very faint heart-shaped CME SOHO image here, thanks C for the link. Maybe[?] a CME did arrived at the time Earth decided to lower her shields, I suppose that is why there are all the jokes about Cupid's arrows...
Space Weather: CME Expected to Miss: Radiation Storm in Progress
spaceweather.com, 28th January 2012
RADIATION STORM:
Accelerated by yesterday's X-flare, energetic protons from the sun are swarming around Earth on Jan. 28th. The radiation storm ranks S2 on NOAA scales, which means this is not a severe storm. Nevertheless, it can still affect spacecraft and satellites at the nuisance level. For instance, this coronagraph image from SOHO is clouded by protons hitting SOHO's onboard digital camera.
X-FLARE (UPDATED): Departing sunspot 1402 unleashed an X2-class solar flare on Jan. 27th at 18:37 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Sunspot 1402 is rotating onto the far side of the sun, so the blast site was not facing Earth. Nevertheless, energetic protons accelerated by the blast are now surrounding our planet, and an S2-class radiation storm is in progress.
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The explosion also produced a spectacular coronal mass ejection (CME). A movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows the cloud racing away from the sun at 2500 km/s or 5.6 million mph. Update: Work by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab shows that the CME will just miss Earth when its edge passes by our planet on Jan. 30-31. Click to view an animated forecast track:
Comment: The latest info from spaceweather.com.
1.8 X-Flare 27th January 2012
spaceweather.com, 27th January 2012
X-FLARE: Departing sunspot 1402 unleashed an X2-class solar flare today, Jan. 27th, at 18:27 UT. The blast site was not facing Earth at the time of the eruption. Nevertheless, a radiation storm is possible. Stay tuned for updates.
Comment:
Whether this blast was Earth directed or not, the solar absorption chart (DRAP) shows that Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere were affected.
Flare X1.7 and CME RA1402 (1) Jan 27. 2012
YouTube, 27th January 2012
Massive CME... the question is: is any of that coming our way?
Spectacular Moon Haloes
spaceweather.com, 27th January 2012
CORONA CONJUNCTION:
"Last night I went outside to photograph the Venus-Moon conjunction, and I got more than I bargained for," reports Robert Arn of Fort Collins, Colorado. "The Moon and Venus both had an incredible corona surrounding them. The sight was beyond words (but not beyond pictures)." He recorded the scene in this 5-second exposure @ ISO 400:
Coronas are caused by tiny water droplets in thin clouds, which diffract the light of bright heavenly bodies to produce iridescent halos, as shown above. Seeing one corona in the night sky is not uncommon; however, seeing two in close proximity is a rare treat. Another "corona conjunction" could be in the offing. The Moon is moving past Venus for a meet-up with Jupiter on Jan. 29th. If the two align behind a moist, thin cloud--voilá!
Comment: I have ignored so many spaceweather entries on moon haloes, I have even been seeing them in Switzerland but this is truly fantastic.... dust, dust glorious dust... I appreciate the "Dark Materials" but else out there appreciates what is going on? Only the spiritually intelligent need reply...
Auroras Over the Lower States of the USA Again!
spaceweather.com, 27th January 2012
AURORAS OVER THE USA: The geomagnetic storm of Jan. 24th died out before night fell over North America--or did it? According to reports still trickling in, auroras were reported not only in Canada, but also in some of the lower 48 US states. Shawn Malone of Marquette, Michigan, took this picture looking north from the shores of Lake Superior:
"I got to view a slice of the aurora through a tiny opening in an otherwise completely overcast sky," says Malone. "It appeared to be a pretty decent display."
Prompted by the CME warning, Mike Hollingshead of Nebraska drove 450 miles to the Badlands National Park of South Dakota hoping to catch a glimpse of the auroras. He got more than he bargained for: "While I waited for some sign of auroras, the most amazing fireball I've ever seen blasts down. It flashed brightly and illuminated the terrain around me." Later, the auroras made a belated appearance, turning the badland sky green.
More auroras could be in the offing. A solar wind stream is heading for Earth, due to arrive on Jan. 28-29.
Comment: So, are the USA now routinely getting auroras in the lower states? That is only supposed to happen for rare G4/G5 geomagnetic storms, not storms that NOAA only grudgingly define as G2. I am wondering when more people start to realise that something serious is happening to the atmosphere, especially over North America...
CME IMPACT 24th January 2012
spaceweather.com, 24th January 2012
CME IMPACT: As expected, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24th at approximately 1500 UT (10 am EST). Geomagnetic storms are likely in the hours ahead. If it's dark where you live, go outside and look for auroras.
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In Lofoton, Norway, the CME's arrival produced a surge in ground currents outside the laboratory of Rob Stammes: link
Comment: I don't know whether the ACE satellite instruments for measuring the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) is actually busted, but the NICT images and data don't look too great to me. The NICT Space Weather box (see right column) actually says for the Solar Wind (ACE): "Inaccurate measurement of the rate of increase for proton". Hmmm.....
Solar storm aurora captured by UK photographers - 7 Photos
Wired.co.uk, 23rd January 2012
Planes expected to reroute following massive solar eruption
Fox News, 23rd January 2012
An immense blast of plasma spewed late Sunday night from the sun led to the strongest radiation storm bombarding our planet since 2005, and a rare warning from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency -- and even a plan to redirect certain high-flying airplanes.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center -- the nation's official source of warnings about space weather and its impact on Earth -- issued a watch for a geomagnetic storm expected to hit our planet Tuesday morning after a satellite witnessed an ultraviolet flash from the massive solar eruption, according to Spaceweather.com.
Comment: Radio communications must be bad most likely due to the proton storm being a long duration event and then we have a fast CME arriving soon too...
Biggest solar storm in six years
Stuff.co.nz, 24th January 2012
"The radiation in the form of protons came flying out of the sun at 93 million miles per hour. "The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don't get rid of them like that," Biesecker said. That's why the effects will stick around for a couple days."
ALMOST-X FLARE AND A NEW MASSIVE CME BLAST
spaceweather.com, 23rd January 2012
ALMOST-X FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site: movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the leading edge of the CME will reach Earth on Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours). Their animated forecast track shows that Mars is in the line of fire, too; the CME will hit the Red Planet during the late hours of Jan. 25.
This is a relatively substantial and fast-moving (2200 km/s) CME. Spacecraft in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing through Earth's ring current and auroral regions could be affected by the cloud's arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras
RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons accelerated by this morning's M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications. An example of satellite effects: The "snow" in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by protons hitting the observatory's onboard camera.
Comment: There has been a R2 radio blackout and the worse proton storm in 7 years, the solar absorption chart (DRAP) shows the ionosphere to have been highly affected by the worse radiation storm in 6 years. A very fast Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is headed towards Earth. Things are starting to get interesting because if we keep getting volley after volley of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, that is when we are most likely to get an ultra weakened magnetosphere (poor magnetic defences) that will provide the conditions for a killer geomagnetic shot that will knock out national power grids. From my perspective, I don't believe there is enough current expertise to say when that knock out shot will occur and I am still waiting for some information that tells us what criteria will be used to make the decision to take down national power grids. Solarham.com has more spaceweather info and videos.
2012-01-23 15:01 Geomagnetic Storm Expected Tuesday, Jan 23
NOAA SWPC, 23rd January 2012
"As the strongest Solar Radiation Storm (S3) since May, 2005 continues, the associated Earthward-directed Coronal Mass Ejection is expected to arrive about 1400 UT (9am EST) Jan 24. SWPC has issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch with G2 level storming likely and G3 level storming possible, with the storm continuing into Wednesday, Jan 25. All of this activity is related to a moderate (R2) Radio Blackout x-ray flare that erupted Sunday night (11pm EST). Updates will be posted here as we learn more or follow us on Facebook."
A strong solar flare reaching M8.7 took place at 03:59 UTC monday morning
The Watchers, 23rd January 2012
The anomaly in the Earth's atmosphere - UFO or use of HAARP? Shooting from the ISS January 22, 2012
YouTube, 22nd January 2012
Skeptics immediately say that this cirrus clouds, but it is not! Look at the correct location of the structure in the form of a cone or pyramid! At the very top of an object is clearly visible - the core! What do you think about this?
Comment: I am a skeptic and I say dusty plasma or more technically light scattered by dust bands in plasma. It is unfortunate that there are so many uneducated and ignorant people who are so completely unaware of what is taking place in our solar system and on Earth. Hence the blogosphere is awash with people seeking to blame what they don't understand on a tiny little atmospheric heater (HAARP) that could not even rival the power of one single bolt of lightning. Earth get's struck by lightning 100 times per second or 6000 strikes per minute or 360,000 strikes per hour, or 8,640,000 strikes per day. Source: here . The whole planet is electrically alive and getting more and more electrified every single day due to the changing properties of our local space environment, hence the increase of Transient Luminous Events e.g. sprites and jets. The planet is also being flooded with highly charged dusty plasmas due to interstellar dust leaking into our solar system from deep space. Hence the appearance of noctilucent clouds and a whole range of 'rare' atmospheric phenomena that suggests that 'unusual' condensation nuclei and most likely cosmic dust is to blame. There is a lot of different sources in the atmosphere, natural and man-made that could have caused this atmospheric feature, but shouting HAARP is a sure sign of those who are scientifically illiterate.
CME Impact [Update II]
spaceweather.com, 22nd January 2012
CME IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd. At first the impact did not appear to be a strong one: the solar wind speed barely lifted itself to ~400 km/s when the CME passed by. Now, however, in the wake of the CME, a dense and increasingly geoeffective solar wind stream is blowing around Earth, setting the stage for possible auroras on the night of Jan. 22nd. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
A surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway, signaled the CME's arrival,
but the impact occurred as the sun was rising--too late for European sky watchers to spy the Northern Lights.
CME IMPACT II (Version II): Arriving a little later than expected, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field and briefly exposed satellites in geosynchronous orbit to solar wind plasma. Shifting lines of magnetic force induced strong ground currents in Norway and sparked bright auroras over the upper reaches of North America. This colorful corona appeared over Chatanika, Alaska:
Comment: This geomagnetic storm is a long drawn out affair... The magnetosphere image icon used here is at 22nd Jan 14:20:55 and our cosmic shielding has failed as we now expect and allowed in a lot of extremely energized cosmic energy. The surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway is interesting I imagine there will be some impact on normal day to day business.
CME Impact / Geomagnetic Storm Jan 22, 2012
YouTube, 22nd January 2012
"CME Impact: ACE Spacecraft telemetry has recorded a sudden solar wind increase to 540 km/s. A geomagnetic sudden impulse to 30nT was recorded at 06:00 UTC. This indicates the arrival of the expected Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Minor Geomagnetic Storm conditions are now in progress."
This video is a good summary of space weather data and info.
Real time Kiruna Magnetometer reading
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, 22nd January 2012
ACE Satellite Data: CME Shockwaves detected - 22nd January 2012
NICT Real time Magnetosphere
Simulation.
Alaska - Aurora Live
Space Weather Alerts - NOAA Definitions
CME Blast Directed at Earth [Update]
spaceweather.com, 20th January 2012
INCOMING CME:
Active sunspot 1401 erupted yesterday, Jan. 19th around 16:30 UT, producing an M3-class solar flare and a full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME). The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the cloud expanding almost directly toward Earth:
Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud arrives this weekend. Their animated forecast track predicts an impact on Jan. 21st at 22:30 UT (+/- 7 hrs).
Comment: Well, this is the first time I have seen conflicting space weather reports. Spaceweather.com is written by Dr. Tony Phillips who controls all the press releases and media from NASA, that should tell you something. It seems that he has decided to ignore NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) and believe the space weather forecasters at NASA Goddard. Now remember it was only a few weeks ago that a CME was supposed to miss Earth and actually hit us, so presumably that was NASA officials listening to the wrong people... Here are being told by spaceweather.com/NASA that this CME could hit us as strongly (G3?) but I would like to know the exact details. According to NOAA's Geomagnetic Storm Scale defined as G1- G5, G1 is minor, G3 is Strong, G5 and we can expect mayhem, see table for details.
2012-01-20 16:35 G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm Possible January 23
NOAA SWPC, 20th January 2012
"SWPC Forecasters have determined that the CME from NOAA Region 1402 near disk center yesterday will likely pass above (north) of Earth. This glancing blow will cause just G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm activity. Look for the first signs of it around 1800Z (1:00 pm EST) on Sunday, January 22, with the bulk of the disturbance to occur Monday, January 23. Watch here for updates."
NASA SDO - M2.6 Solar Flare on January 19, 2012
YouTube, 19th January 2012
M3 Solar Flare & CME Blast Directed at Earth
spaceweather.com, 19th January 2012
EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE:: Active sunspot 1401 erupted today, Jan. 19th, between 15:15 and 16:30 UT. The long-duration blast produced an M3-class solar flare and a CME that appears to be heading toward Earth. This movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the extreme UV flash:
NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft recorded an impressive CME emerging from the blast site: movie #1, movie #2. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab confirm that the CME is heading for Earth, and they say strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud arrives this weekend. Their animated forecast track predicts an impact on Jan. 21st at 22:30 UT (+/- 7 hrs).
Comment:
NOAA have been kind and provided us the usual joke warning of +/- 7 hrs.... Solarham.com has lots of basic info and videos.
The best light shows on Earth are getting even more spectacular
spaceweather.com, 17th January 2012
CHANCE OF AURORAS: A coronal mass ejection (CME) heading mainly for Venus might deliver a glancing blow to our planet, too, on Jan. 19th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the cloud arrives. In Finland, the Northern Lights are already shining. Aurora tour guide Andy Keen took this picture last night in the Municipality of Inari:
"We didn't need head-torches as the forest was illuminated by the Aurora dancing above our heads," describes Keen. "For over two and a half hours we witnessed one of the best light shows that I've ever observed in over 5000 hours of 'chasing' the auroras. Ribbons, curtains, mini spirals, bursts - you name it and we had it."
"Some of our group were so amazed by what we were witnessing that they simply lay on their backs in the snow and soaked it all up. Others ran around making noises like over excitable school children - myself included. It was absolutely mind-blowing to say the least. If this is a sign of things to come as Solar Maximum approaches, then all I can say is that we're all in for a real treat over the coming months and years.
Comment: Hmmm... This should be no surprise if the magnetosphere is weak, full of cracks and allowing in more solar and cosmic energies.
Massive Coronal Hole
spaceweather.com, 14th January 2012
CORONAL HOLE: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring a dark gash in the sun's atmosphere--a coronal hole. It's the dark vertical feature in this extreme UV image taken on Jan. 13th:
Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape. This yawning hole is about 120,000 km wide and more than a million km long. Solar wind flowing from its UV-dark abyss will reach Earth on Jan. 16th or 17th, possibly sparking auroras for high-latitude sky watchers.
Comment: I think the massive coronal hole, with a slightly faster and dense solar wind that also has a south magnetic field orientation is part of the reason why the mysterious sounds are being heard but the real issue is: what is making the sounds of the magnetosphere audible by the human ear? What is interesting is that some people have been complaining for years that they could hear a low hum but it might get to the stage where everyone can hear the sounds all the time. That would be incredible.
News Report: Mysterious Auckland [New Zealand] Hum
YouTube Feb 17, 2007
This hum was found to be at 56Hz but the researchers could not name a source.
News Report: Mysterious Rumblings and Vibrations in Windsor, ON, Canada are Causing Problems - August 2011
YouTube, Aug 16, 2011
More 'Rare' Clouds: The Dust Starts to Settle on the Matter
spaceweather.com, 14th January 2012
POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS: An apparition of polar stratospheric clouds is underway around the Arctic Circle. "It is almost as good as the aurora borealis," says Göran Strand, who took this picture last night from Östersund, Sweden:
Eric Schandall of Oslo, Norway, adds this report: "We have seen them for three evenings over Oslo, with the ones on Jan. 13th being the most dramatic and beautiful so far."
Also known as "nacreous" or "mother of pearl" clouds, these icy clouds form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to around minus 8°C. Sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference.
"Nacreous clouds far outshine and have much more vivid colours than ordinary iridescent clouds, which are very much poor relations and seen frequently all over the world," writes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Once seen they are never forgotten."
Comment: So have we moved on from noctilucent clouds and reached the next stage? We are told that these 'rare' clouds need frigid temperatures but this is wrong wrong wrong. This cloud formation is also dependent on the electrical charge of the condensation nuclei and just like noctilucent clouds, atmosphereic scientists are admittting that noctilucent clouds are being caused by dusty plasmas... But the difference here is noctilucent clouds form at about 85km but these clouds are forming at 15-25km... The clouds are literally shinning brightly because they are highly charged pastel coloured neon lights... the dust is now beginning to settle on this matter and on us all... Good!
Spaceweather disturbs the Earth's upper atmosphere
spaceweather.com, 13th January 2012
FARSIDE ERUPTION: On Jan. 12th, between 10:00 and 1300 UT, NASA's STEREO-Behind spacecraft observed a significant eruption on the farside of the sun. Although the blast was partially eclipsed by the edge of the solar disk, it nevertheless produced a long-duration X-ray flare (C3-class) detectable from Earth. A movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows some of the debris flying over the NE limb:
The blast site is only ~two days away from rotating onto the Earthside of the sun. By this weekend, we could get a direct look at the active region. Perhaps it will break the recent string of mostly quiet days and low solar activity.
Update: The partially-eclipsed C-flare was strong enough to make waves of ionizaton in Earth's upper atmosphere. This, in turn, disturbed the normal propagation of low-frequency radio waves over Europe. "The C3.3 flare on the far side of the Sun was picked up on my SID monitoring station," reports Dave Gradwell of Birr Ireland. "It affected the 20.9 kHz signal from FTA in France, just before the signal became unstable."
Comment: I find it strange that a moderate C-class flare can now cause problems in Earth's upper atmosphere. I have been occasionally looking at the magnetosphere and it took a direct hit by 'something' at nearly midnight on the 11/12th. There was a huge density spike and the magnetosphere reacted by filling up with particles, but it did not get 'red' or even 'white' hot so I found that strange too. I think that what is happening is that the conducting properties of space is still going up and that even innoculous flares and CMEs are having a stronger and stronger impact, so the old ratings are no longer applicable. I don't even bother looking at whether the Earth's magnetic field is 'normal' because 'normal' is only 'normal' for short periods before the next time the magnetic field lines get distorted and reverse, that is the new normal.
'Mile High Halo' Forms Over Tim Tebow And Mile High Stadium During Broncos Steelers Game (PHOTOS)
Huffington Post, 9th January 2012
Let's all try to be calm and rational about this. In addition to Tim Tebow throwing 316 yards in the Broncos' upset over the Steelers (Tebow painted Bible verse John 3:16 under his eyes in college) and fans replacing "Tebow" with "Jesus" on their jerseys, apparently a halo-like smoke ring formed over Mile High yesterday after the Broncos scored their first field goal.
Mark Neuman-Lee, an attendee of the Steelers/Broncos game and photographer of the "Mile High Halo," tells HuffPost he'd never seen the ring prior to yesterday's NFL upset. Two season pass ticket-holders also told HuffPost the halo seems to be an anomaly. At the time of publication, a request for comment from the Broncos was not immediately returned.
Comment: In the same way that volcanoes can belch out smoke rings, (the sun does the same occasionally too), some force has created a ring above this stadium. The remarkable thing is that the ring appeared in a blue sky but the charge impact caused changed the temperature of the air and so some particles in the air became condensation nuclei in order for water droplets to form the ring. Now we are getting killer electrons blasting into our atmosphere from the Van Allen belts. Also, I believe that we are in a region of space with peculiar properties and at times, Earth is hit by beams of energy [spinning vortexes] that cause the hole punch clouds and the peculiar laser cut "sink holes". I know that in the last week, there was some chatter about sink holes and even a Russian toddler died when the pavement collapsed, I was going to ignore this story (see above) but the video indicates the hole had fairly well cut sides so I am suspicious. We also had geomagnetic activity from a CME that was first announced as a likely near miss on Earth. Instead, it hit and there was ground currents reported from Norway... unbelievable. The following is a weird comment of something strange seen in the sky. I think this is unrelated, but still interesing:
Joel Trafton: I see the same thing while camping in Maine in the late 70s.It was like looking up thru a big jelly fish.
Yes, there are now lots of stories of people seeing entities swimming about in our atmosphere that look like jelly fish, and actually there does seem to be tendrils in the photo.... But, looking at all the circumstantial evidence, I still think this was caused by a beam of electrons.
CME Hits - Ground Currents in Norway
Spaceweather.com, 8th January 2012
GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY: Forecasters said a CME might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 7th, and indeed it might have. There was no sharp change in the solar wind speed signaling a CME's passage. There was, however, a surge in ground currents in northern Norway during the late hours of Jan. 7th, which suggests that something did rattle Earth's magnetic field. Rob Stammes recorded the disturbance from his laboratory in Lofoten. Ground currents often herald auroras, and true to form the skies turned vivid green:
Rob Stammes: Jan. 7, 2012
Laukvik, Lofoten, Norway.
As expected by the Goddard Space Weather Lab,there is a magnetic and ground current disturbance on my instruments,today Jan.7th. Coming from a CME after an eruption on Jan. 5th. On my instruments,but behind the clouds,there is northern lights.
Comment: I am not particularly thrilled that space weather forecasters did not get this right, but it does not surprise me when you realise that some of the basic theory is not even right. So, I have found a Los Alamos press release detailing a plasma physicist who I think makes some valid points.
Los Alamos scientist suggests new approach to measuring flow from the sun
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, September 9, 2010
A scientist examining the solar wind suggests that our understanding of its structure may need significant reassessment. The plasma particles flowing from the Sun and blasting past the Earth might be configured more as a network of tubes than a river-like stream, according to Joseph Borovsky of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Space
In a paper in this week's Physical Review Letters, "Contribution of Strong Discontinuities to the Power Spectrum of the Solar Wind,"
(Physical Review Letters 105, 111102 [2010]), Borovsky challenges the concept that the solar wind is of fairly uniform structure, and therefore, our entire interpretation of spacecraft data may not be correct. "For decades we have been interpreting the spectrum of fluctuations in the solar wind as a measurement of turbulence in the wind. However, it turns out that impurities (discontinuities) in plasma dominate the signal. Hence, the spectrum is not a clean measurement of
turbulence, and it may not even be a measurement of turbulence," Borovsky said. In simpler terms, perhaps, we couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Is this the best aurora picture ever taken?
Daily Mail, 4th January 2012
This stunning picture could well be the best ever taken of an aurora. It was snapped by German photographer Sebastian Voltmer and provides a truly dazzling atmospheric sight.
A professional astronomer writing for Nasa's picture of the day site – APOD – said: 'The wide angle image, horizontally compressed, captured an unexpected auroral display that stretched across the sky one month ago over eastern Norway.'
Comment: Just eerie, almost like sticky liquid is pouring down a hole.... I have seen a lot of aurora photos, but this is something else....
Apocalypse cloud: Extraordinary sight appears above Montana's Crazy Mountains
Daily Mail,5th January 2012
Recommended!
