Did you know there was a CME that caused radio outages?

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

CHICAGO (AP) — A fireworks show that has nothing to do with the Fourth of July and everything to do with the cosmos is poised to be visible across the northern United States and Europe just in time for Halloween.

On Thursday, the sun launched what is called an “X-class solar flare” that was strong enough to spark a high-frequency radio blackout across parts of South America. The energy from that flare is trailed by a cluster of solar plasma and other material called a coronal mass ejection, or CME for short. That’s heading toward Earth, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a warning about a potentially strong geomagnetic storm.

It might sound like something from a science fiction movie. But really it just means that a good chunk of the northern part of the country may get treated to a light show called the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights.

Geomagnetic storms as big as what might be coming can produce displays of the lights that can be seen at latitudes as low as Pennsylvania, Oregon an Iowa. It could also cause voltage irregularities on high-latitude power grids as the loss of radio contact on the sunlit side of the planet.

To star gazers: Fireworks show called Northern Lights coming

A fireworks show that has nothing to do with the Fourth of July and everything to do with the cosmos is poised to be visible in the northern part of the United States and Europe just in time for Halloween.

apnews.com

Not sure how far down this one will be visible.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

This one says Washington state:




The sun belched up a large flare of charged particles on Oct. 28, and now that electric wind is barreling toward Earth as a strong geomagnetic storm.
The storm — which ranks as a category G3 on the Space Weather Prediction Center's (SWPC) 5-tier scale — is expected to reach Earth late on Saturday (Oct. 30), with effects continuing into Halloween (Oct. 31), according to a SWPC statement.
"Impacts to our technology from a G3 storm are generally nominal. However, a G3 storm has the potential to drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence," the SWPC wrote. "The aurora might be seen over the far Northeast, to the upper Midwest and over the state of Washington."
Large solar flares, or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are a routine type of space weather that occur when enormous blobs of plasma (electrically charged gases that make up all the stars in the universe) escape the sun's atmosphere and ooze through space at hundreds to thousands of miles a second. (The current G3 storm is traveling at about 600 miles, or 970 kilometers, per second, according to SWPC.)

Massive solar flare barreling toward Earth this Halloween

The category G3 storm could cause some satellite navigation problems, and auroras as far south as Washington state.

www.livescience.com

 

[hal2kilo]

Magically, we are going to have clear weather for the next 2 nights. Last time I saw them was camping in north central Washington (Conconully, pronounced conconelly) probably about 30 years ago. Was up drinking by the campfire, and I kept wondering why the sun had not gone completely down. It was 10:30, actually not that unusual at that high of latitude and being the middle of summer. But, the more I looked at the sky, I was wondering if I was having a flashback or something because the whole sky was swimming in green patterns (oxygen). Needless to say, it ended up being a late and beautiful night. No curtains like you typically see from videos.
So I intend walk up the mountain behind me a bit to get above the trees and look north tonight.