Severe Geomagnetic Storm Occurs (Aurora possibly visible in US immediately after Sunset)

NOAA Space Environment Center ^ | November 20, 2003

[John H K]

The solar regions that produced dramatic space weather activity in late October and early November have returned to the visible side of the sun. These large sunspot groups have been numbered as NOAA Region 501 (previous Region 484), 507 (previous Region 488), and 508 (previous Region 486). All three regions have decreased in size since last rotation; however, they are bright and show considerable magnetic complexity. Region 501 has already produced a category R2 (moderate) radio blackout and spawned a category G4 (severe) geomagnetic storm, which began today, November 20th, at 2:04 a.m. EST (0804 UTC) and is strengthening. The last flurry of activity associated with these regions produced perhaps the largest radio blackout (R5) measured by the NOAA GOES satellite in almost thirty years. Moderate to strong activity is possible for the next two weeks as they make their transit across the visible disk.

[John H K]

Activity today was from a flare that wasn't all that strong, but apparently was a direct hit, and the Interplanetary Magnetic Field fortuitously went WAY South (if it's a South Field it encourages Aurora further South.)

However, the timing was VERY poor for the US for Aurora.

Today has seen some of the strongest and furthest south Aurora in over a decade (much stronger than what we saw a couple weeks ago, but the strongest part of the storm started right after dawn in the US.

Actually, pretty much all morning, there were bright Aurora OVERHEAD in places like Florida, California, and Texas, and it would have been visible in Mexico, but, of course, it was daylight and they were invisible.

Folks in Europe, (in the few non-cloudy areas) are reporting the best aurora they've ever seen.

It weakened a lot this afternoon, just bumped back up in the last hour but not to what it was this morning.

Still, right after dark, I supect aurora will be visible in the northern Half of the East coast. Hard to say how long this storm will last.

[farmfriend]

ping

[Poohbah]

And Proxima Centauri, Wolf 359, and Tau Ceti all ask, "All right, who farted?"

[Lokibob]

 

http://www.spaceweather.com/

MAGNETIC STORM: A strong geomagnetic storm is in progress. It began at approximately 0800 UT on Nov. 20th when a coronal mass ejection swept past Earth. Auroras have been sighted as far south as Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States. Got pictures? Submit them here.

Above: Auroras above Wisconsin before sunrise on Thursday, Nov. 20th. Photo credit: Chris VenHaus

[Prof Engineer]

ping

[dennisw]

Fri Oct 31,10:35 AM ET

The aurora borealis is seen over the town of Hyvinkaa in southern Finland October 31, 2003. The aurora is very visible as a result of a second huge magnetic solar storm hitting the Earth on Thursday, just a day after an earlier one hit our planet in what one astronomer called an unprecedented one-two punch. (Lehtikuva/Reuters)

[per loin]

Kp index now at 9 (top of the chart).

[r9etb]

Oh pleeeeeeeease let me see it tonight....

[r9etb]

This reminds me of the last solar cycle, which had two peaks separated by a couple of years. I haven't paid attention lately: any idea how F10 looks?

[John H K]

It intensified a lot right after those pics...

It was agonizing today; I was looking at

http://www.dan.sp-agency.ca/www/rtoval.htm


And the auroral oval was SO far south, it actually was so far south the south edge could NOT be picked up by the Canadian Magnetometer array and the North Edge of the oval was actually barely still in Canada....but it was of course daylight.

And


http://www.spacew.com/www/aurvis.gif


Was showing the south edge of good overhead aurora over MIAMI for much of this morning; it's shrunk a lot since then, and it still indicates that the Aurora should be visible to South Carolina/Georgia, if things hold, at sunset.

(BTW, Ignore the "Auroral Oval" thing at the SEC website, it's worthless).

[per loin]

Are skies clear where you are. Sky in NW is now located about seven and a half feet above the ground, so I doubt we will see much here.

[r9etb]

It's iffy -- we're supposed to have a front begin blowing through sometime in the next couple of days....

[Molly Pitcher]

Clear skies, too. Keeping fingers crossed!

[Lokibob]

This plot contains the estimated planetary K-index. This index is derived, at the U.S. Air Force Space Forecast Center, using data from ground-based magnetometers at Meanook, Canada; Sitka, Alaska; Glenlea, Canada; Saint Johns, Canada; Ottawa, Canada; Newport, Washington; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Boulder, Colorado; and Fresno, California. These data are made available through the cooperation of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) and the US Geological Survey. K-indices of 5 or greater indicate storm-level geomagnetic activity. Geomagnetic storms have been associated with satellite surface charging and increased atmospheric drag.

This page updates dynamically every 15 minutes.

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[per loin]

Solar flux measured at 20h UTC (last night) on 2.8 GHz was 155.1. Anyone have a source for real time data?

[onedoug]

Nuclear energy is Bush's fault. Extinguish the sun!

[WilliamWallace1999]

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

Ask and ye shall....whatever.

This is the most current I know of with great pictures of flares and sunspots.

Check out the sunspot link for cool picutures.

[xp38]

Yawn...Aurora are visible in the US all the time

[Poohbah]

You really want to see Aurora, you need to go to Groom Lake, Nevada (c8

[Renfield]

HMMPH! I just walked outside (in Maryland, along the Chesapeake Bay) and I see a lot of stars, but no Aurora. I've wanted to see one all my life.