Posted on 12/22/2021 2:21:01 PM PST by BenLurkin
Monday's CME, which burst from the sun at 6:36 a.m. EST (1136 GMT), is expected to reach Earth on Thursday (Dec. 23). It stemmed from a powerful M1.9-class solar flare that erupted from a sunspot called Active Region 2908, according to Spaceweather.com.
"The auroral oval is likely to be slightly enhanced at high latitudes from the 22nd to 24th due to coronal hole geomagnetic activity enhancement, and the chance of a weak coronal mass ejection arriving on the 23rd," the Met Office wrote on its website.
According to the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Weather Network, the sun has been quite busy in the past week with several active regions springing up on its scorching surface in the run-up to Christmas.
The geomagnetic storm triggered by the Monday CME is only expected to be minor, the Met Office said. Geomagnetic storms occur when charged particles from the sun interact with the planet's magnetic field. The Earth's magnetic field lines will redirect these particles above the poles, which is why we see auroras in these regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Wouldn’t that be cool to see an Aurora display on Christmas Eve?
Unlikely here in the Inland Northwest as we’ve been under clouds for four to six weeks.
Ping
Reminds me of what Uncle Lewis said,
“That’s not the friggin’ Christmas star..”
I’ve been seeing fabulous pictures of the aurora posted on FB. I’d love to be able to see them myself.
They saw the aurora borealis here in North Carolina during the Civil War. All our neighbors have a lot of lights, so we wouldn’t see it no matter what.
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