Posted on 09/10/2005 5:24:51 PM PDT by NRA2BFree
Solar activity remains very high and shows no signs of abating. Sunspot 798/808 has unleashed seven X-class solar flares since Sept. 7th. Forecasters say there's a 75% chance of more X-flares during the next 24 hours, possibly causing radio blackouts and radiation storms.
Coronal mass ejections hurled into space by these explosions could hit Earth's magnetic field in the days ahead. Sky watchers, particularly in northern places like Canada and Alaska, should remain alert for auroras. The best time to look is local midnight. The sun's 27-day rotation is slowly turning sunspot 798 to face Earth. Explosions in the coming week will be increasingly Earth-directed, raising the possibility of geomagnetic storms and auroras over the continental United States, Europe and Australia.
This will be a great time for you lucky folks who live in the northern part of the country. The auroras should be very active. I wish we could see them in NM. They are so beautiful.
Bush can't be responsible for this, it's got to be Cheney and Halliburton's Hurricane machine
you beat me to it.
Global warming!
Pretty big sunspot for this time nearing the down in the 11 year cycle.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mdi_igr/512/
Considering there was a period of at least 100 years during the little ice age when there were no sunspots at all, clearly the Sun is putting out more energy in this 11 year cycle than it did then.
Thanks for the reminder. The sky is crystal clear tonight on the southern shore of Lake Erie, so I might get lucky. (The only time I ever saw an aurora was in Flint, MI.)
Doesn't look like any big time Auroral activity yet at all; you have to wait for a major earth-directed Coronal mass Ejection. Another couple days before sunspot 808 is in position to do that, then you need the BIG CME, and then you need 1-3 days for it to arrive.
Ping!
UNIVERSAL WARMING ALERT!
Thanks for the detailed info.
Just look at what we've done! Kyoto could've prevented this!
its all Bush's hairsprays fault they will say
Holy crap that thing is the size of Jupiter
You are fight about the global warming. The sun did it. The sun is 35% hotter in the last 100 years. I will not get rid of my 4X4 because I will need it in the coming ice age.
Considering there was a period of at least 100 years during the little ice age when there were no sunspots at all, clearly the Sun is putting out more energy in this 11 year cycle than it did then.
Thanks for the link. That sunspot is a whopper! I got interested in solar flares in 1998 and the cycle was supposed to end in 2000, but they're still going, and like you say, they're getting much stronger. It will be interesting to see when this cycle does end. They sure are hard on cell phone users, like me. I hate dropping calls. :o)
You're welcome. You are so lucky. Take some pictures for us. :o) I love to see the pictures. They are so amazing! SpaceWeather.com lists pictures from all over the world, so you really get to see different ones. I hope you get to see some really beautiful ones.
Thanks for the heads up!
LOL
Do you guys ever get to see the auroras in TX? We've never had them, that I know of. I can only imagine how breathtaking they are. The pictures are so beautiful. I bet it's awesome to watch them in person.
You can bet I'll have my camera at the ready and will share pics if things work out with me, the Sun and unpredictable magnetic fields!
"They sure are hard on cell phone users, like me. I hate dropping calls. :o)"
I'm an amateur radio op. The bands have been horrible for the last few days. I sure wish Bush would move those sunspots away from earth's path. :)
You bet! I hope you take some pictures if you get to see them. Then you can share them with us. :o)
we saw aurora in late October two years ago in NW Central Ohio. We had been having intense solar activity and people saw the aurora in the evening and others reported seeing it when they went to work at 5:30am
You sure it was an aurora you saw that night in Flint? If Michael Mooron was in town you could have seen the afterglow of a fart he was lighting in his folk's basement.
Hold on a minute. I'll call FEMA. LOL
This gives me hope!
Thanks. Let's hope it works out that you get to see them. :o)
I kept watching and when the "fog banks" started changing to red, then blue, then GREEN... I suddenly woke up to what I was seeing!!!
We've seen them again here in the Sierra-Nevada range not far from Lake Tahoe on rare occasions.
I was in Flint, MI about 1974. A high school friend had moved there and I just visted over the weekend. At that time I was blissfully unaware of the bloated idiot.
I am in St. Marys and I have a friend that is an amateur astronomer and he has a huge telescope that takes pictures and I bet he is outside right now!
Shhhh, don't tell the RATS. Maybe they won't find out about this. They're too busy looking for dirt.....in the water. :o)
I think certain flukes of the universe can make them visible here, but I have never seen them.
I saw some ball lighting - or a UFO - once, and that was fascinating.
Auroras are great, when you can catch them. I've only seen two or three by chance. All the other times, I either hear about it the day after or it UNFAILINGLY clouds up. ARGH!!!!
When I call him, I'll put in your request. :o) I bet it is hard on radios. I've always been interested in those radios, but never knew anyone who had one so they could help me. I know there are directions with them but they seem so technical that I've just never done it. I am challenged. lol
People need to evacuate the area NOW!
LOL! Would that be Urbana or Belfontaine?
In the last 5 years or so Aurora have been visible in Southern California and Texas on 2-3 occasions, I think.
Anyway, if I get a Low-latitude Aurora Alert from Solar-Terrestrial Dispatch I'll repost it on FR.
Otherwise I wouldn't recommend people south of the Northern tier of states just sort of randomly wait outside for Auroras; Auroras over the middle or southern parts of the US are rare but reasonably predictable and you should have a day or 2 of warning and a rough guestimate of when to look.
I know they've had them in AZ before because I saw some pictures. They weren't as intense, but the sky over the desert is so bright that it could have taken away from them. If we've ever had them in NM, I've never heard about it.
I saw some ball lighting - or a UFO - once, and that was fascinating.
Wow. I bet the 911 lines were ringing off the wall. A few nights ago there was a long series of lights that appeared on top of the Sandia Mountains by Albuquerque. They were captured by many on their camcorders and they showed them on TV. No one knows what they were. They appeared to have stretched out over several miles.
I already called. Mike Brown told me to call Oprah.
They were gonna make an announcement last night but it got too late, I have seen them before, it is a definite sight to see. Thanks!
It's pouring in Juneau right now.. but we have 5 days to go .
Let's sue McDonalds!
I thought the 11-year cycle was supposed to end about 6 years ago. This cycle is much longer than expected. So there is no telling HOW MUCH LONGER this cycle will last.
That sounds like those lights seen several years ago in AZ. I sure wish we could see an aurora down here in S. Florida. And speaking of beautiful things seen in the night sky, several years ago on a trip to Steamboat Springs, in the middle of nowhere we saw a lunar rainbow. It was incredibly beautiful. It looked like a pure white rainbow of light arching over the highway. I had no idea such a thing existed, but looked on the internet when we got back, and indeed they do.
susie
I'm in northern Colorado, about 70 miles north of Denver. We can see the northern lights right now. Not too spectacular, just what looks like the lights of a city on the horizon, except they are light green and there is no big city in that direction.
They fade in and out and move across the horizon like low clouds. Cool!
Of course he did. She's going to take his place. LOL Wouldn't we be surprised if that happened. I just saw her on TV tonight and she's really packed on the pounds again.
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