Northern Lights Visible Possibly as Far South as NYC, Michigan, and Oregon...

Reaganite Republican ^ | March 8, 2012 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

The massive solar storms currently bombarding the earth with charged particales (@ 4 million mph!) are the largest in over five years, driven by a double solar flare. This phenomenon could bring the beauty of the Aurora Borealis to places it's rarely seen early this morning and heading-on-in to Thursday night...

What we have is the Sun belching-out a cloud of gas (twice) who's strong electrical charges will temporarily warp the Earth's own magnetic field as it gets here... which is now. They also play havoc with elements like Nitrogen in our upper-atmosphere, and thus the auroras are produced.

But as we wait for the Northern Lights to put on a show, such a wave of powerful matter can also have far less entertaining effects, such as in 1972 when the state of Illinois had most long-distance telephone communications wiped-out by a solar flare... and this one's a double. Other worries include GPS/satellite communications and power grids.

The Sun is now in the midst of a cycle of increased solar storm activity, expected to peak over the next twelve months- thus providing perhaps additional rare opportunities over the coming months to witness the astonishing Aurora Borealis without having to travel to the Arctic.

How to tell if the show is nearing your area? The Canadian Space Science Data Portal has a active 'Auroral Oval' map that tracks Northern Lights aurora activity in real-time -here-

NOAA has a North American visibility predictor map based on intensity rating of the solar storm -here-, others -here-

And here's a closer look at the culprit this time -care of NASA time-lapse photography- an unusual double solar flare that began erupting last month: 

[YouTube]

Video/more at Reaganite Republican

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Space.com   Lovethesepics   BeachConnection   CNN   Wikipedia   ThePoint94.3   CSSDP  NOAA 

[Carriage Hill]

4 million mph!

Faster than a Govt Motors’ Chevy Dolt?

[knarf]

2012 and solar flares

[njslim]

Geez wonder if all those Volts will suddenly catch fire......

[Carriage Hill]

If the past (Ford Pinto etc) is any indication, they will.

[ZX12R]

Geez wonder if all those Volts will suddenly catch fire......

It would be so very sweet if this storm caused every Volt on the road to short circuit and stop working. Then news video of Volts being towed off the roads and highways everywhere in the country.

[Hot Tabasco]

Northern lights have always been visible in Michigan under certain conditions. I’ve a friend who lives in N.W. Kansas who has even seen them......

[Reaganite Republican]

“Geez wonder if all those Volts will suddenly catch fire”

Maybe the charged particle wave will FIX the Volts... as good a chance as GM ever figuring it out lol

[SunkenCiv]

Another “extra, extra” ping for APoD members. Have a great Thursday.

And Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Spring’s upon us. (yay)

Thanks Reaganite Republican.

[moose07]

Thanks for the wallpaper!
Since this all started last week ,we’ve been having trouble with our computer networking systems!

[left that other site]

Gorgeous! Thank You for posting this.