Earth--Day and Night Regions

Earth--Day and Night Regions

Planetary Positions

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Skywatchers Catch Amazing Aurora Views After Solar Storm

From Space.com and Yahoo News:



Skywatchers Catch Amazing Aurora Views After Solar Storm

By Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor
Space.com | SPACE.com – Fri, Mar 9, 2012
Outbursts from the sun over the past week are now paying dividends to skywatchers, who have been treated to amazing views of auroras recently.
The glowing auroras, also called the northern and southern lights, are caused when charged particles from the sun collide with Earth's magnetic field. These charged particles are in abundance lately in the wake of a series of super-charged solar eruptions that began on Tuesday (March 6).
The sun released two huge X-class solar flares on Tuesday, followed by strong eruptions on Wednesday and Thursday.
These tempests have fired off waves of plasma and particles called coronal mass ejections that travel through space, sometimes hitting Earth and giving skywatchers a treat.
Astrophotographers Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre were flying from from Boston to Los Angeles Thursday night (March 8), and knew the chances of seeing auroras were high.
"At the gate we asked the airline agent to switch our seats to the right side of the plane so our cabin window would be facing north," Joson wrote in an email. "We first noticed the aurora's greenish glow along the horizon as the plane was approaching Wisconsin. The glow grew stronger and stronger, and by the time we were flying over Minnesota, the display reached its peak, exhibiting distinct structures such as bright rays, curtains and bands."
The two photographers managed to snap a number of great aurora shots, and even spread their enthusiasm to other passengers.
"We told a number of passengers as well as flight attendants about the aurora and they soon joined us in taking turns peering through the plane's small windows," Joson wrote. "Around this time, the captain also noticed the show outside and made an announcement over the P.A. system to alert the rest of the passengers and crew."
Observer Shawn Malone caught a view of the northern lights over Lake Superior from Marquette, Mich., early Wednesday (March 7).
"There will probably be some major activity in coming days — I'm definitely not used to the frequency of this activity!" Malone wrote in an email to SPACE.com. "Before 2010, I went 3+ years of not seeing the lights. This pick-up in activity is welcome indeed."
If you catch views of the auroras that you'd like to share with SPACE.com for a possible story or image gallery, please contact assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz at cmoskowitz-at-space-dot-com.
You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter@ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.
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Solar storm lights up northern skies

Solar storm lights up northern skies
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Friday, March 9, 2012

Solar storm shakes Earth magnetic field

From Yahoo News:


Solar storm shakes Earth magnetic field

By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press – 15 hrs ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A solar storm shook the Earth's magnetic field early Friday, but scientists said they had no reports of any problems with electrical systems.
After reports Thursday of the storm fizzling out, a surge of activity prompted space weather forecasters to issue alerts about changes in the magnetic field.
"We really haven't had any reports from power system operators yet," Rob Steenburgh, a space weather forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., said early Friday. "But sometimes they don't come in until after the storm."
He said the storm reached a moderate level late Thursday, before going to a strong level early Friday. For most of Thursday, it was rated as minor.
Scientists say such storms don't pose a threat to people, just technology.
The space weather center's website says a storm rated as strong could force corrections to voltage systems and trigger false alarms on some protection devices, as well as increase drag on satellites and affect their orientation.
The forecasters weren't aware of any significant impact to electrical or technological systems, but said there was a two-hour blackout of high frequency radio communications — affecting mainly ham radio operations — stretching from eastern Africa to eastern Australia.
Steenburgh also said that there was another solar flare late Thursday, similar to the one a few days ago that set off the current storm.
"Right now we're still analyzing when it will arrive" and how strong it could be, he said.
The space weather center had reports of Northern Lights across Canada and dipping into the northern tier of U.S. states, Steenburgh said.
While some experts thought the threat from the solar storm passed by earlier Thursday, the space weather center maintained the storm's effects could continue through Friday morning.
The current storm, which started with a solar flare Tuesday evening, caused a stir Wednesday because forecasts were for a strong storm with the potential to knock electrical grids offline, mess with GPS and harm satellites. It even forced airlines to reroute a few flights on Thursday.
It was never seen as a threat to people, just technology, and teased skywatchers with the prospect of colorful Northern Lights dipping further south.
But when the storm finally arrived around 6 a.m. EST Thursday, after traveling at 2.7 million mph, it was more a magnetic breeze than a gale. The power stayed on. So did GPS and satellites. And the promise of auroras seemed to be more of a mirage.
Scientists initially figured the storm would be the worst since 2006, but now seems only as bad as ones a few months ago, said Joe Kunches, a scientist at the NOAA center. The strongest storm in recorded history was probably in 1859, he said.
"It's not a terribly strong event. It's a very interesting event," Kunches said.
Forecasters can predict the speed a solar storm travels and its strength, but the north-south orientation is the wild card. This time it was a northern orientation, which is "pretty benign," Kunches said. Southern would have caused the most damaging technological disruption and biggest auroras.
On Thursday, North American utilities didn't report any problems, said Kimberly Mielcarek, spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a consortium of electricity grid operators. Her office didn't respond to a phone call early Friday.
Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, forecast to be strong and ending up minor, still may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.
The storm is part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach a peak next year. Storms as large as the latest one will probably happen several more times as the cycle ramps up to that peak, scientists said.
The region of the sun that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. Another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth.
"This is a big sun spot group, particularly nasty," NASA's Hathaway said. "Things are really twisted up and mixed up. It keeps flaring."
Storms like this start with sun spots. First, there's an initial solar flare of subatomic particles that resembles a filament coming out of the sun. That part usually reaches Earth only minutes after the initial burst, bringing radio and radiation disturbances. Next is the coronal mass ejection, which looks like a growing bubble and takes a couple days to reach Earth.
Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.
For North America, the good part of a solar storm — the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights — was likely to peak Thursday evening. Auroras were likely to dip only as far south as the northern edges of the United States, Kunches said, but a full moon would make them harder to see.
Solar storms can bring additional radiation around the north and south poles — a risk that sometimes forces airlines to reroute flights. On Thursday, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines sent 11 flights to Asia on a more southern route rather than their more common path over the Arctic. Three American Airlines flights flew lower than normal over the northernmost parts of their routes to Japan and China.
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AP Business Writers Josh Freed and David Koenig contributed to this report.
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Online:
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: www.swpc.noaa.gov
NASA on solar flare: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News030712-X1.5.html
____
Follow Seth Borenstein at http://twitter.com/borenbears
This handout image provided by NASA shows a solar flare errupting at 7 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, and that is heading toward Earth. An impressive solar flare is heading toward Earth and could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center said the sun erupted Tuesday evening and the effects should start smacking Earth late Wednesday night, close to midnight EST. They say it is the biggest in five years and growing. (AP Photo/NASA)

This extreme ultraviolet wavelength image provided by NASA shows a solar flare. An impressive solar flare is heading toward Earth and could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. An impressive solar flare is heading toward Earth and could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center said the sun erupted Tuesday evening and the effects should start smacking Earth late Wednesday night, close to midnight EST. They say it is the biggest in five years and growing. (AP Photo/NASA)
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Biggest solar storm in years races toward Earth, could disrupt power grid, GPS and more

From Yahoo News:


Biggest solar storm in years races toward Earth, could disrupt power grid, GPS and more

By Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press | Associated Press – Thu, Mar 8, 2012
WASHINGTON - Earth's magnetic field is about to be shaken like a snow globe by the largest solar storm in five years.
After hurtling through space for a day and a half, a massive cloud of charged particles is due to arrive early Thursday and could disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas. But the same blast could also paint colorful auroras farther from the poles than normal.
Scientists say the storm, which started with a massive solar flare earlier in the week, is growing as it races outward from the sun, expanding like a giant soap bubble. When it strikes early Thursday, the particles will be moving at 4 million mph.
"It's hitting us right in the nose," said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo.
Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.
The storm is part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach peak storminess next year. Solar storms don't harm people, but they do disrupt technology. And during the last peak around 2002, experts learned that GPS was vulnerable to solar outbursts.
Because new technology has flourished since then, scientists could discover that some new systems are also at risk, said Jeffrey Hughes, director of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling at Boston University.
A decade ago, this type of solar storm happened a couple of times a year, Hughes said.
"This is a good-size event, but not the extreme type," said Bill Murtagh, program co-ordinator for the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.
The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the most noticeable effects should arrive here between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the space weather centre. The effects could linger through Friday morning.
Centre forecaster Rob Steenburgh said that as of 2:30 a.m. EST Thursday, there were no noticeable effects on Earth. But he said there were some indications from a satellite, which registered a slight rise in low energy particles.
The region of the sun that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. He said another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth right after this.
"This is a big sun spot group, particularly nasty," NASA solar physicist David Hathaway said. "Things are really twisted up and mixed up. It keeps flaring."
Storms like this start with sun spots, Hathaway said.
Then comes an initial solar flare of subatomic particles that resemble a filament coming out of the sun. That part already hit Earth only minutes after the initial burst, bringing radio and radiation disturbances.
After that comes the coronal mass ejection, which looks like a growing bubble and takes a couple days to reach Earth. It's that ejection that could cause magnetic disruptions Thursday.
"It could give us a bit of a jolt," NASA solar physicist Alex Young said.
The storm follows an earlier, weaker solar eruption that happened Sunday, Kunches said.
For North America, the good part of a solar storm — the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights — will peak Thursday evening. Auroras could dip as far south as the Great Lakes states or lower, Kunches said, but a full moon will make them harder to see.
Auroras are "probably the treat we get when the sun erupts," Kunches said.
Still, the potential for problems is widespread. Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. This is an unusual situation, when all three types of solar storm disruptions are likely to be strong, Kunches said. That makes it the strongest overall since December 2006.
That means "a whole host of things" could follow, he said.
North American utilities are monitoring for abnormalities on their grids and have contingency plans, said Kimberly Mielcarek, spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a consortium of electricity grid operators.
In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.
Solar storms can also make global positioning systems less accurate and cause GPS outages.
The storm could trigger communication problems and additional radiation around the north and south poles — a risk that will probably force airlines to reroute flights. Some already have done so, Kunches said.
Satellites could be affected, too. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the space agency isn't taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the International Space Station from added radiation.
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Online:
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: www.swpc.noaa.gov
NASA on solar flare: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News030712-X1.5.html
___
Follow Seth Borenstein at http://twitter.com/borenbears
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