the auroras have really been off the charts the last few nights. must have been a flare.
“the auroras have really been off the charts the last few nights. must have been a flare.”
Yes! There’s been a HUGH spike in solar activity of late.
I’ve never seen the aurora in person. I think I could watch that for hours, or at least until I froze my ass off.
Very interesting. Thanks! Until tonight, I had not heard anything recently about increases in aurora borealis sightings.
Mnehring thanks again. I looked it up on NASA and found the following info which confirms your post and the posts from Attention Surplus Disorder and mylife.
Long Duration M3.2 Class Solar Flare and CME
01.19.12
(video at the link below)
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this video of the M3.2 solar flare on January 19, 2012. The graph at the top indicates corresponding X-ray measurements taken by the GOES-15 satellite. Credit: NASA/SDO/GOES-15
A long duration M-class flare began erupting on the sun at 8:42 AM ET on Thursday, January 19. The flare is shown in the above movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory in a combination of light wavelengths. An earth-directed coronal mass ejection was associated with the solar flare. NASA’s Space Weather Services estimates that it is traveling at over 630 miles per second and will reach Earth some time on Saturday, January 21, when strong geomagnetic storms are possible and viewers can be on the look out for increased aurora.
(another video also on the same page)
A coronal mass ejection beginning at about 10 AM ET on January 19, 2012, as captured by the Solar Heliospheric Observatory’s LASCO C2 camera. Please Note: This video loops 3 times. Credit: NASA/SOHO
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News011912-M3.2flare-cme.html