Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. |
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GEOMAGNETIC
STORM UPDATE: A CME propelled toward
Earth by this morning's X5-class solar flare is
expected to reach our planet on March 8th at 0625
UT (+/- 7 hr). Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather
Lab, who prepared the
CME's forecast track, say the impact could spark
a strong-to-severe geomagnetic storm. Sky watchers
at all latitudes should be alert for auroras. Aurora
alerts: text,
phone.
A mild geomagnetic storm is already
underway,
following a lesser CME impact on March 7th around
0400 UT. Shortly after the cloud arrived, a burst
of Northern Lights appeared over the US-Canadian
border. Shawn Malone photographed the display from
the shores of Lake Superior:
"I was lucky to catch this brilliant
outburst of aurora activity that was very active
for close to an hour," says Malone, who has
also made a time-lapse
video of the display. "The aurora had no
problem shining through the moonlit skies."
more images: from
Eric Frigon of Banff National Park , Alberta,
Canada; from
John Welling of Ashland,Wisconsin; from
Justin Phillips of New Auburn, Wisconsin; from
Truls Tiller of Tromsø, Norway; from
Stephen Voss of Sandy Point, New Zealand; from
Olivier Du Tré of Cochrane, Alberta; from
Manu Keggenhoff of Jake's Corner, Yukon, Canada;
from
Ed Stockard of Sun Mt Lodge, Methow Valley,
Washington
MAJOR
SOLAR FLARE (UPDATED): Big sunspot
AR1429 has unleashed another major flare. This one
is the strongest yet, an X5-class eruption on March
7th at 00:28 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
recorded the extreme UV flash:
This eruption hurled a bright CME
into space, shown
here in a movie from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather
Lab estimate that the CME will reach Earth
on March 8th at 0625 UT (+/- 7
hr), possibly triggering a strong-to-extreme
geomagnetic storm. An animated
forecast track shows the progression of the
fast-moving cloud.
The flare also accelerated energetic
protons toward Earth, triggering an S3-class
solar radiation storm, in
progress. Such a storm is mainly a nuisance
to satellites, causing occasional reboots of onboard
computers and adding noise to imaging systems. Solar
flare alerts: text,
phone.
THE
MOON AND MARS: This week, Mars
is at its closest to Earth for all of 2012. The
Red Planet is easy to find: On March 7th it's right
beside the full Moon. Go outside after sunset and
look for the Moon and Mars rising together in the
east. [sky
map]
Last night in Cobourg, Ontario, photographer
Malcolm Park caught the Moon and Mars converging:
"[High clouds] created this lovely
view from my back yard of an ice
halo around the moon, with Mars inside punctuated
by a high altitude contrail," says Park.
more images: from
Gregg Alliss of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; from
Luigi Fiorentino of Bari, Italy; from
Heiko Ulbricht of Freital, Saxony, Germany;
from
Mihail of Yaroslavl, Russia; from
Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project of Atlanta,
GA
February
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Februaries: 2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002]
