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Ot: Auroras


CuplaKiwis

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Completely off topic, so I apologise in advance, but if you're in the North or in Scotland, and the sky is clear, there's a massive solar storm going on. This means that there's a very good chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis later tonight.

 

Provided the sky is clear of course :D

 

Aidan

Edited by CuplaKiwis
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Ok, so I'm too darn lazy to look up the weather forcast or what time I need to be standing in the back garden in my shreddies (isn't snow forecast tonight???), so what's the likelyhood of seeing the lights? I'm in the NE too (thanks for stopping at my cache yesterday - you oughta take that bug to NZ, I brought that one back from Tenerife in August and it's ended up in one of my own caches! Spooky or what?).

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Hmmn. Put it this way - if the sky clears later this evening, it's definitely worth getting out to have a look. From what I understand, the solar storm is similar in size to the one in early december that sparked aurora sightings in the midlands.

 

Best display looks to be around 11pm to midnight if it shows...

 

Snow or Aurora? Tough call which I'd prefer! :D

 

Aidan

Edited by CuplaKiwis
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Aurora watch and Aurora Alert are based on data from the York Magnetometer only, so those in Scotland may still have had a snow OOPS show.

 

But yes, we certainly didn't end up getting anything here in Newcastle. However, there's another CME on it's way, due to hit tonight/tomorrow, so fingers crossed!!

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OK.. thanks Kiwis. Maybe you can answer a question on behalf of a couple of our geocaching friends who are heading for NZ next week.... Is there any chance of seeing an Aurora from the south of South Island?

Most definitely. I have friends in Dunedin who took an amazing time lapse video of the Display just before christmas. Not a common occurrence by any means, but not unheard of!

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As part of my job I sometimes have to travel to the northern parts of Sweden during the winter months. You can spot visitors when the aurora is active as they can be seen peering into the sky. The locals have seen it too often to bother looking. It really is an amazing sight, especially when the colours are bright. I really hope you get a chance to see the lights. Sometimes when they are quite dim it looks like high cloud but then the light shifts. In Sweden it can be somewhat more dramatic with the shifting being very rapid. It's one of those must see before you.....

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nice work if you can get it.

 

i'll resist the obvious jokes....

 

def. right though, this is one of the things to do before...

 

it's such a shame we very very rarely get anything on south coast. and then you only find out the next day. really helpfull. looks like a trip to scotland at some point. just amtter of planning/luck etc. any time of year better?

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NewScientist has an article about it

 

 

The Sun spewed forth a massive amount of radiation this week, causing brilliant auroras and a radio blackout.

 

Since 14 January alone, it has unleashed at least 17 medium and five large solar flares from a single sunspot cluster. Forecasters at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expect medium to high solar activity to continue until 23 January.

 

"Having so many big flares from one particular region of the Sun is quite something," says Bernhard Fleck, project scientist for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite.

 

The X-rays produced by the flares did not rise to the level of the notorious solar storms of October and November 2003, but in terms of high-energy protons, this is the largest radiation storm since October 1989.

 

The full article is at this URL.

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For people to have seen an aurora in southern latitudes with such a bright moon as we've had this past week, it must have been a helluva show.

 

I missed it all. We are midway between Gran Canaria and Georgia. Much too far South to have a snowball's chance in hell of seeing the northern lights.

 

A full-blooded display is well worth seeing. It's nature free fireworks show and it only lacks loud music.

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