Sun Stuff: What's up!

[TargeT]

Gonna be a beautiful night in my neck of the woods

Forecast: Auroral activity will be high. Weather permitting, highly active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Bethel, Dillingham and Ketchikan, and visible low on the horizon from King Salmon.

Forecaster Comments: The effects of the solar events of the last days have reached Earth and a large magnetic storm is in progress. Check the short-term auroral forecast for your local activity.

Forecasted by Charles Deehr
Time of Prediction: Friday, September 9

Print Forecast

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/

[Amzer Zo]

Latest from Spaceweather.com:

GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A strong geomagnetic storm (Kp=7) is in progress following the impact of a CME around 1130 UT on Sept. 9th. This could be the first of several hits from a series of CMEs expected to reach Earth during the weekend. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after nightfall. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

Update: Electrical ground currents caused by the storm have been detected in Norway.

ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Sunspot 1283 is producing flares so intense they are visible through solar telescopes in backyards 93 million miles away. Amateur astronomer Andy Devey photographed this one, and M6-class eruption, from Barnsley UK on Sept. 8th:

The magnetic canopy of sunspot 1283 has an unstable "beta-gamma-delta" configuration tthat harbors energy for more powerful eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of M-flares and a 25% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

more images: from Bob Yoesle of Goldendale, Washington; from Sergio Castillo of Inglewood, California; from Monty Leventhal OAM of Sydney, Australia; from James Kevin Ty of Manila, Philippines; from Alcaria Rego of Almada, Portugal

MERCURY-DIRECTED CME: On Sept 8th around 2300 UT, the SOHO and STEREO spacecraft detected a significant CME emerging from the farside of the sun. Earth is not in the line of fire, but the planet Mercury is. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab estimate that the cloud will reach the innermost planet on Sept. 9th at 12:00 UT (plus minus 7 hours). Click to view a movie of their CME model:

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is in orbit around Mercury, so it will have a front row seat for the impact. Researchers are keen to learn how Mercury's magnetosphere responds to CMEs. In particular, they wonder if CMEs can overpower Mercury's magnetic field and sputter atoms right off the planet's surface. Thanks to the Goddard forecast, MESSENGER's controllers know the CME is coming, and they can prepare to observe the impact.

Interplanetary space weather forecasting is a new thing. It became possible in 2010-2011 when NASA and ESA spacecraft surrounded the sun. Working together, SOHO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, STEREO-A and STEREO-B now have the entire star under surveillance. CMEs can be tracked no matter where they go, which means space weather isn't just for Earth anymore.




That last sentence: "CMEs can be tracked no matter where they go, which means space weather isn't just for Earth anymore." Tiens, tiens... wonder who else could benefit from some spaceweather data... moreover, where would those benefiting from it would be located or roaming around... particularly, whose space fleet? I mean, beside the known satellites?

[Amzer Zo]

Posted by joedjemal (here)
I wonder if this caused the us west coast black out.

Hi Joe!

This should give you the definite answer:




Rob Stammes


Image taken:
Sep. 9, 2011

Location:
Instrument room polarlightcenter Lofoten Norway.
Details:
Today. sept.09 2011 at 12.45 UTC the first CME arrived as a magnetic shockwave on my instruments.There is also an effect in signal strength from my vlf receivers,coming through electrons in the solarwind cloud.The magnetic field is unstable at the moment,it means a big change for auroras coming night.





Of note, that's ~7 hours prior to the 6.7 BC earthquake.


USA_Oregon station

[Amzer Zo]

That's also when HAARP-gakona started to go berzerk:

[Ineffable Hitchhiker]

GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A strong geomagnetic storm (Kp=7) is in progress following the impact of a CME around 1130 UT on Sept. 9th.
This could be the first of several hits from a series of CMEs expected to reach Earth during the weekend.
High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after nightfall

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrSP-TmKCdc

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMy34zQy-BE

[MorningSong]

Well, well, well.... we just had another M1.1 Flare starting at 7:18 UTC and ending at 7:40 UTC from sunspot 1283.

http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest_events/



Because the sunspot is farther out on the western limb, it should have only a glancing blow to Earth.

[Amzer Zo]

Geomagnetic storm first hit:

FIRST STRIKE: The first of several CMEs en route to Earth struck our planet's magnetic field on Sept. 9th around 1130UT. The impact sparked a strong (Kp=7) geomagnetic storm, which is only now subsiding. Last night Northern Lights were spotted in the United States as far south as Washington, Michigan, Vermont, Montana, Maine and North Dakota. More geomagnetic activity could be in the offing as one or two more CMEs approach. Stay tuned.

[MorningSong]

For the past 3 days , the sun has been busy sending out 6 C-class CME flares and one B-class flare on the 11th, 7 C-class flares on the 12th, and so far today, only 1 C-class Flare.

Sun spot region 1283 is moving west off the Earth-facing side of the sun while new sunspot 1295 coming over the eastern edge will soon be taking up the spotlight facing Earth.

The Proton flux has normalized after last weeks M-and X-class flares, but the Electron Flux and X-ray flux remains unstable and high.

Solar wind flowing from a Coronal Hole has been reaching Earth with relatively high velocities, around 600km/sec and has produced Auroral activity to reach level 10 several times during this timeframe, demonstrating the fluxes with the typical lightshows at much lower latitues in both hemispheres.


From Spaceweather.com:

AURORA WATCH: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras tonight. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and causing intermittent geomagnetic storms around the poles. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

ACTIVE SUNSPOT: New sunspot AR1295 is emerging over the sun's northeastern limb and crackling with solar flares. The strongest so far, a C9.9-category blast, did something remarkable. Click on the arrow to watch an extreme ultraviolet movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:



n the movie, the underlying explosion (marked by the flash of extreme UV radiation) hurls material upward. The ejecta crashes into a loop of magnetism above the sunspot, stretching the loop until the material breaks free. Coronagraph images from the STEREO-A spacecraft confirm that a cloud of plasma (a CME) left the scene.

This sunspot will not turn toward Earth for several days. Until then, CMEs leaving AR1295 should continue to miss our planet.

[Wantsthetruth74]

Attachment 9897


time stamp roughly 2011-09-13 14:00

I think the sun may be PMS ing!!

[MorningSong]

That's funny, starchild111!

That is probably a final farewell blast from 1283 from the back side of the sun now.... a C2.7 Flare according to Solarsoft:

http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/lates...0913_1203.html

[MorningSong]

From spaceweather.com:

SUNDIVING COMET: A comet is diving into the sun today. Just discovered by comet hunters Michal Kusiak of Poland and Sergei Schmalz of Germany, the icy visitor from the outer solar system is expected to brighten to first magnitude before it disintegrates on Sept. 14th. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is monitoring the comet's death plunge:

[MorningSong]

Once upon a flare.....

A strong CME... happened today but I have not found much data on it except for the cygnet Streamer model:

http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaS...1&cygnetId=261

and a CME allert at Integrated Weather System:

Event Issue Date: 2011-09-14 14:50:05.0 GMT
CME Arrival Time: 2011-09-17 04:38:03.0 GMT
Arival Time Confidence Level: ± 6 hours
Disturbance Duration: 13 hours
Disturbance Duration Confidence Level: ± 8 hours
Magnetopause Standoff Distance: 6.6 Re
Sat, 17 Sep 2011 04:38:03 GMT

to be continued....

[MorningSong]

Although this is barcaroller's EQ Watch, it explains a lot of sun stuff as well as the CME allert for the 17th.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Dx3xMkvLE

[MorningSong]

Finally spaceweather.com has this:

INCOMING CME: Yesterday, Sept. 14th, an eruption near sunspot 1289 hurled a CME in the general direction of Earth. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab expect the cloud to deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on Sept 17th around 04:30 UT. High-latitude magnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives.

And this on the space diving comet:

SUNDIVING COMET: Note to comets: Stay away from the sun. On Sept. 14th, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watched what happened when one got too close. Click on the arrow to play a 6-hour time lapse movie:



One icy comet went in, none came out. Discovered on Sept. 13th by Michal Kusiak of Poland and Sergei Schmalz of Germany, the doomed comet was a member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet many centuries ago. They get their name from 19th century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who studied them in detail. Several Kreutz fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most, measuring less than a few meters across, are too small to see, but occasionally a big fragment like this one attracts attention.

[Wantsthetruth74]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the bombardment of chemtrails we have experienced the last day and a half. Just disgusting.

[Wantsthetruth74]

Can anyone explain to me when you are looking at the lasco movies of the sun, how do you know which cme's are headint to earth, is it always around the 4 oclock position, or does it change day by day. I have gotten good at spotting the flares and cme's but im not sure what position the earth is at any given time. Thank you in advance for any information you could offer in this area.

[panopticon]

Posted by starchild111 (here)
Can anyone explain to me when you are looking at the lasco movies of the sun, how do you know which cme's are headint to earth, is it always around the 4 oclock position, or does it change day by day. I have gotten good at spotting the flares and cme's but im not sure what position the earth is at any given time. Thank you in advance for any information you could offer in this area.

G'day Starchild111,

LASCO is an instrument on SOHO and SOHO is positioned between the Earth and the Sun.
This would mean, some one correct me please if I'm wrong, that a CME heading towards Earth would be partially obscured by the (ominously named) occulter disk.

So SOHO moves with the Earth and STEREO moves ahead and behind in the same plane. STEREO A moves ahead of us (just a bit more than 90 degrees at the moment) and STEREO B follows us (again by a bit more than 90 degrees at the moment).
The distance from Earth lengthens as the STEREO mission progresses.

Kind Regards,
Panopticon

Sources and Further Reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASCO_L...ic_Coronagraph
http://soho.esac.esa.int/about/instruments.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_a...ic_Observatory
http://soho.esac.esa.int/about/orbit.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occulting_disk
http://www.spaceweather.sflorg.com/c.../lasco_c3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEREO
http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/where.shtml
http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/mission/ove...sionDesign.php
http://star.mpae.gwdg.de/
http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/

[Wantsthetruth74]

Thank You panoptigon. So the earthbound flares would be shooting out from the center towards us which is partially blocked.

[Wantsthetruth74]

Ok so I just plugged in 2011-09-15 thru 2011-09-16 on LASCO 2, at approximately 07:00 the 16th (today) it jumps to 14:00, so it appears there is 6 to 7 hours of missing footage..Is this normal, or are they again hiding something?

[panopticon]

Posted by starchild111 (here)
Ok so I just plugged in 2011-09-15 thru 2011-09-16 on LASCO 2, at approximately 07:00 the 16th (today) it jumps to 14:00, so it appears there is 6 to 7 hours of missing footage..Is this normal, or are they again hiding something?

G'day Starchild111,

I am not having this problem.
Is this the address you used to access the image:
http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-..._movie_theater

Maybe there was a back-up during that period which is being gradually caught up with.
The LASCO faq might explain it better.
Who knows. Way above my pay grade.
Why not email them and ask?

Kind Regards,
Panopticon

Sources:
http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=content/faq
http://soho.esac.esa.int/explore/drsoho.html