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Snap, Crackle, and Popping of the Sun. [Space Weather!]

ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyesBad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
edited November 2011 in Social Entropy++
***This thread isn't about the weather here down on Earth.... it is about the weather up in outer space!***

SPACE WEATHER! This thread is about what is currently happening out in space in relation to our Sun and what effects it is having for us here on Earth.


LIVE AURORA LOCATION
Here is a live image for your viewing pleasure of where the Auroral oval currently is over the north and south pole. The red arrow indicates where the Sun is in relation to the Earth as well as where it is currently noon on the Earth.

pmapN.gifpmapS.gif

LIVE GEOMAGNETIC STORM INFORMATION
Here is a live graphic of the current geomagnetic conditions present in our upper atmosphere from both the Boulder, CO and the international composite monitoring sites.

Kp.gifboulder_k_3d.gif

When the bar is RED expect to see the auroras start to migrate south as well as become significantly brighter and more excited.

LIVE SOLAR FLARE DATA
Here is a live image of current solar flare activity. The higher the peaks, the stronger the flare. Each big rise in the red and blue lines is a solar flare. The two colored lines represent two separate satellites.

Xray.gif


Discussion for 11/3/11:

Right now we are currently entering one of the most active solar cycles on record. Late last month on the 24th a massive CME (coronal mass ejection) slammed into the Earth's magnetosphere and caused an amazing and rare display of pure red auroras as far south as Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alabama. The CME was the result of a large magnetic filament of plasma snapping and hurling a large chuck of the Sun's atmosphere out into space.

Brian-Emfinger-10251101_1319508192_med.jpg
A photo taken from a storm chaser friend of mine near Ozark, Arkansas of the pure red auroras during the Oct 24th, 2011 geomagnetic storm.

The peak of the solar cycle is expected to take place in late 2012 through mid 2013 but already we have seen a high number of strong to extreme solar flares and CMEs as well as some of the largest sun spots ever seen.

Shortly after I posted a mention of sun spot AR1339 in my meteorology thread (post is here: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/21028937#Comment_21028937), it erupted with a massive X2 class flare. That is one of the strongest types of solar flares that can occur. This flare has already caused waves of ionization in our upper atmosphere which is effecting the way radio waves propagate around our planet. If you the proper amateur radio equipment right now you could likely make contact with someone much father away than you normally would be able to by bouncing your signal off the ionosphere.

Here is an awesome video that the SDO nabbed of the x-class flare happening: http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/h264/2011/11/03/SSW_cutout_20111103T2011-20111103T2047_AIA_304-193-171_N21E64.mov

Rogerio-Marcon-VLF_AR1339_03nov2011_X1flare_1320365158_med.jpg
A VLF record in 24kHz NAA station. Big SID's today.

So far the aurora has not become overly excited by this event and that is likely due to the fact that the flare was not directly aimed at our planet. The good news is though that everyone should remain on alert for possible sightings of the aurora this week as AR1339 moves in front of the sun and points right at us. AR1339 is some mind boggling 44,000km wide and is at least 88,000km long! This makes it one of the largest sun spots ever seen and these massive spots are usually very active.

ar1339_strip.jpg
Sun spott AR1339 shortly before letting off a large x-class flare.

Right now NOAA has some pretty high percentages in their forecast for the next 72 hours and all because of this spot.

Large Solar Flare Forecast:
Updated at: 2011 Nov 03 2200 UTC

FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 75 % 75 %
CLASS X 20 % 20 %

Geomagnetic Storm Forecast:
Updated at: 2011 Nov 03 2200 UTC

Mid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 40 % 20 %
MINOR 15 % 05 %
SEVERE 10 % 01 %

High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 50 % 25 %
MINOR 20 % 10 %
SEVERE 15 % 05 %


Those of you in higher latitudes should remain on the watch over the next 48 hours for a good chance of seeing the Aurora.


If any of you get to see the aurora or have in the past do let us know on here. Please share any photos you may have too! :D

Chimera on

Posts

  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    this is really cool but Knowing has made me forever wary ofthe sun

  • TrippyJingTrippyJing Moses supposes his toeses are roses. But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered User regular
    I liked Knowing until the last twenty minutes or so.

    b1ehrMM.gif
  • WeedLordVegetaWeedLordVegeta Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    In hollywood it's all about who you know, and I know crackle

    WeedLordVegeta on
  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    As long as our plant is as strong of a magnet as it currently is we have nothing to worry about. Flares don't work the way that do in knowing. If you want a proper worse case scenario as to what the worst of the worst of solar storms will do to our planet is to watch this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIr6nfwpctA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22H0iiMwjac
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBYGPUpxVco
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRI34cV-xXY
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01EdXTjzhvE

    Even this is over dramatized for entertainment purposes.

    The real damage that would happen to our civilization would be to our power grid and our electronics as well as our radio communication capabilities. Unless our Earth's magnetic field breaks down like Mars's we wont have to worry about a flare blowing off our atmosphere. We also never will have to worry about the wall of flame one produces as that was just pure Hollywood make believe.

    With our magnetic field in the state that it is currently we would have to worry more about the sun its self blowing up rather than a single flare or CME.

    Chimera on
  • BlankZoeBlankZoe Registered User regular
    It was cold today

    it hasn't been properly cold in a while

    this was The Weather with Blank

    CYpGAPn.png
  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    Blankzilla wrote:
    It was cold today

    it hasn't been properly cold in a while

    this was The Weather with Blank

    Wrong thread. (unless you are giving your forecast from space) http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/151021/its-raining-its-pouring-chimera-is-forecasting-the-weather.#Item_88

  • BlankZoeBlankZoe Registered User regular
    I live on the rings of Saturn

    (I just saw the word weather and went into autopost)

    CYpGAPn.png
  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    Blankzilla wrote:
    I live on the rings of Saturn

    (I just saw the word weather and went into autopost)

    It's all good. I hear the Rings of Saturn are typically wonderful to visit this time of the solar cycle.

  • #pipe#pipe Cocky Stride, Musky odours Pope of Chili TownRegistered User regular
    Hullis wrote:
    In hollywood it's all about who you know, and I know crackle

    VSWFd.jpg

  • mensch-o-maticmensch-o-matic Registered User regular
    Quick reminder that the black center of those sunspots is bigger than the entire Earth

  • WeedLordVegetaWeedLordVegeta Registered User regular
    #pipe wrote:
    Hullis wrote:
    In hollywood it's all about who you know, and I know crackle

    VSWFd.jpg

    <3<3<3<3

  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    Quick reminder that the black center of those sunspots is bigger than the entire Earth

    Another fun fact is that if you were able to remove the sun spot from the sun it would actually glow brighter than any star in the sky does here on earth in the night sky. The reason the spot looks like a black dot is because the rest of the sun around it is significantly brighter and thus we get the optical illusion that it is a black dot.

  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    I added some stuff to the first post of this thread. I put some live updating images of the current aurora position as well as a live flare monitoring graphic and a live solar storm tracker for you all to follow. If you need any further explanation of how to use those graphics to forecast aurora sightings please let me know.

  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    I love our core dynamo SO MUCH!

    Mars can't have one because the planet isn't dense enough. Venus probably used to have one, but it got hit by something huge eons ago and barely spins anymore so it has a global uniform temperature with a really shitty heat exchange process.

  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    Weaver wrote:
    I love our core dynamo SO MUCH!

    Mars can't have one because the planet isn't dense enough. Venus probably used to have one, but it got hit by something huge eons ago and barely spins anymore so it has a global uniform temperature with a really shitty heat exchange process.

    The little magnetic umbrellas on Mars is pretty neat though as it allows localized aurora ovals to happen in little patches all over the planet when they get hit by a CME. On the flip side though it also means that most of Mars's atmosphere is getting blasted away by the solar wind and those little umbrellas can accelerate that process during intense solar storms.

  • mensch-o-maticmensch-o-matic Registered User regular
    tumblr_lu3aa15loj1qzxh45o1_500.jpg

  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    edited November 2011
    If you want to break your mind with math, try to understand the difficulty in trying to navigate to an object that all you know is where it was hundreds/millions of years ago.

    Weaver on
  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    I don't want to cheat and look it up, but didn't Venus get hit so hard that it currently has a backwards rotation?

  • SliderSlider Registered User regular
  • BYToadyBYToady Registered User regular
    Super mega solar flare is incinerating the Earth.

    Battletag BYToady#1454
  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Sometimes you run into people who think that the sun is burning oxygen because they have no understanding of physics, and I wish I could make them go through junior high again.

    Weaver on
  • SliderSlider Registered User regular
    Solar flare? Psshhh. That would never destroy the Earth.

  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    Weaver wrote:
    I don't want to cheat and look it up, but didn't Venus get hit so hard that it currently has a backwards rotation?

    No, Venus actually rotates in the wrong direction because of the period and manor in which it formed in the planetary nebula combined with the strong tidal effects that its own dense atmosphere has. While the common thought once was that an impact even caused its spin to retrograde and reverse that has since been revised. It is true that due to the solar and planetary tide issues that Venus has that it did once have a moon which it collided with.

  • ChimeraChimera Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyes Bad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Check this out! That x-class flare put out quite the CME! It is a shame we wont get glanced by it as that would be strong enough to creat some awesome auroral displays.

    20111104_010000_anim.tim-den.gif

    It would be neat to be in orbit around Venus right now to see how it is effected by such a strong CME passing by it. The CME is so strong that it will likely blow away Mercury's temporary atmosphere and pieces of its surface.

    NOAA has upgraded the risk for new X-Class flares for sunspot AR1339 to 20% percent with is pretty dang high! This spot is slowly coming around to face earth and we are just about in its sights.

    Chimera on
  • UlisesUlises Registered User regular
    temperatures around the universe holding steady at 2.725 K

This discussion has been closed.