A Blast From The Sun

MSNBC ^ | April 16,2002 | MSNBC

[John W]

April 16 — A hailstorm of solar particles could touch off a display of auroral lights when it passes through Earth’s magnetic field this week, space weather forecasters say.

The storm, known as a full-halo coronal mass ejection, was thrown off by the sun on Monday, according to data gathered by the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The European-American SOHO satellite monitors solar activity from a vantage point 1 million miles from Earth.

If such a solar storm is strong enough — and if it’s directed right toward Earth — the interaction between the electrically charged solar particles and Earth’s magnetic field could disrupt satellite operations and power grids.

However, that kind of alarm was not sounded this time by SpaceWeather.com or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center.

SpaceWeather.com said the storm “could ignite Northern Lights when it sweeps past our planet on April 17th or 18th.”

The Space Environment Center said that Earth’s magnetic field was likely to become “unsettled to active” by Wednesday, but that the activity was projected to fade within a day or two.

Astronomers believe that the sun is just coming off the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, although they caution that there could still be big flareups ahead.

[Husker24]

I wonder if this is why my cable has been fuzzy lately.

[Eska]

Green night skies, might be the last time to enjoy them till nx fall.

[Scully]

Aurora Borealis (or Australis, as the case may be) ping!

[Scully]

Here's an interesting link to Lockheed's latest solar events page:

SolarSoft

[gcruse]

Why would you ping this to the crevo list????

[Scully]

Science related, just using the master ping list. I'm sorry you don't like being pinged to this. I will delete your name.

[d4now]

cool (hot) link...thanks.

[edwin hubble]

Thanks for the ping, Scully.

Someday we will understand the relationship between solar activity and Earth's climate.
During the quiet-sun period of the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) sunspots almost disappeared and Earth's climate cooled significantly. (The Thames River in London was frozen solid).

Our sea level has been rising since the last ice age...but we are currently at "in-between" sea level. The lowest (ice age) level is hundreds of feet lower than today (out 60-100 milies to the edge of the eastern continental shelf) and the highest is about 140 feet above today's level.

The sun has a lot to do with this and we don't fully understand the sudden changes in the sun's energy output.

[callisto]

Thanks for the ping, Scully.
Here's the full-halo coronal mass ejection that will cause the auroras, taken from the LASCO C3 cameras on SOHO.

For anyone interested, today is a prime day to view the LASCO cameras as newly-discovered comet SOHO-422 is heading to encounter the Sun at 0.08 AU. At that close of an encounter the comet should probably appear to plunge into the Sun as it heats up and burns off it's remaining debris.

As a side note, does anyone know if this comet belongs to the Kreutz or Meyer, Marsden and Kracht comet groups?

[Colosis]

Bump . Noted - Thanks..

[Neuromancer]

The comet is a new comet, not belonging to any known group of comets.

[callisto]

Thank you for the info. It appears we are discovering quite a lot of new comets lately that do not fit into our previous groupings. I wonder if we're looking at these comets on too small of a scale and missing the "larger picture," so to speak. Is there a larger "grouping" that we haven't detected yet? Is there something (no, not Nemesis or the 12th planet) we have yet to observe that is altering their orbit and sending more our way? Or have our technologies and abilities only improved so we are only witnessing examples of what we have missed all of these years?

[Republic]

Love what I always learn here. Hope tonight there are green skys...if so...my family is going to get a wake-up call. I sure hope it is a clear night here in Indy!

[callisto]

For your pleasure:
Aurora Forcast
The Aurora Page
Latest UV Aurora
Latest Visible Aurora
Latest Xray Aurora

[Republic]

Why, THANKS!!! I'm gonna enjoy checking those sites out!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Lazamataz]

I hate space, and I am not too fond of the sun.

Earth just pisses me off.

[callisto]

Noone's said it yet, so I guess I will. 'Tis better to be pissed off then pissed on. LOL! Besides without space all of the potheads would have nowhere to go. :)