Auroral event

E

El and Bill

New member
For those interested in the Northern Lights, this was just released by the Univ. Of Alaska.

"A solar event occurred on Dec 14th that may produce auroral displays greater than an auroral forecast index 4, sometime after midnight (0836 Greenwich time) on the 16th of Dec.  This means the shock may reach Earth sometime around midnight on Dec 15 in North America.  Depending on the character of the disturbance following the shock, viewing may be good on the night of the 16th and 17th.
Auroral Index 4 means Kp=4:  Auroral activity will be active.  Weather permitting, active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Inuvik, Yellowknife, Rankin and Igaluit to Juneau, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Sept-Iles, and visible low on the horizon from Vancouver, Great Falls, Pierre, Madison, Lansing, Ottawa, Portland and St. Johns for North America."


This is the description of the event:
Time: 2010 12 14 1503 UT
Location: N16W55
Shock velocity: Vs = 1000 km/sec
Duration: Tau = 4 hr.
Solar Wind velocity: Vsw = 625 km/sec
Our model predicts the following:
Mach 4.3 shock will reach Earth 2010 12 16 0836Z
Total propagation time     
 
In the event that the stars align and the skies clear up enough to allow us to see anything but clouds, I'll take a look. Right now, the forecast doesn't look promising.
 
Good chance I'll be in St. Johns (we're talking Newfoundland, correct?) over new years...sounds like I'll miss it, or at least it will have subsided some. I've seen it come down to as far as the U.P. of Michigan in years past, very beautiful.
 
I have seen them, one time, from Cache Valley, NE, Utah near Logan. Spectacular, long (maybe an hour) display, mostly yellows, greens and blues.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
The northern lights were a bust up here last night and early this morning. One faint band was seen out the bedroom window. When there's a solar flare or some such thing, it pushes the ring of the aurora (called the "corona") southward. So, if the lights were active, folks south of us would have better viewing than us.

Pat
 
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