Good Viewing Of Aurora Tonight

Anyone see it last night?

NASA raised the storm level to G5! :eek:


SpaceWeatherLive Alert

G5 - Extreme geomagnetic storm (Kp9)

An extreme G5 geomagnetic storm is currently in progress. High and middle latitude sky watchers have a very high chance to see strong aurora. The low latitudes have a high chance to see aurora. Keep an eye on our website for the latest and most up-to-date information.

NOAA uses a five-level system called the G-scale, to indicate the severity of both observed and predicted geomagnetic activity. This scale ranges from G1 to G5, with G1 being the lowest level and G5 being the highest level. Conditions below storm level are labelled as G0 but this value is not commonly used. Every G-level has a certain Kp-value associated with it. This ranges from G1 for a Kp-value of 5 to G5 for a Kp-value of 9. We often use this G-scale on the website so it’s wise to familiarize yourself with it.

More information on the Kp-index and the G-scale

Visit www.SpaceWeatherLive.com or @_SpaceWeather_ for real-time data and updates.

Best regards,

The SpaceWeatherLive crew
www.SpaceWeatherLive.com

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I was up last night. They were pretty bright, another guy on the freq was all worked up over the 'northern lights'.
 
Um, Auroras happen more than once every 13 years.
 
btw, most of you missed the auroral storm of early 1958 - February I think it was..
What a monster. You could read a newspaper at 11PM by the light from the aurora - tried it it just to prove it to myself. Sheets of colored fire across the entire North sky dancing and swirling in absolute silence. We lived in the country 5 miles from the nearest village and many miles from a big city so we had dark skies. This was before the ubiquitous yard lights, etc. and the nearest neighbor was a half mile away. It was a long time ago and I can still close my eyes and see it.
 
The solar cycle is nominally 11 years, not 13, though the length does vary somewhat. (And to be precise, since the magnetic field polarity flips each time, the full cycle is 22 years.)

We had no chance to see the aurora last night as the clouds moved in shortly after sunset. Maybe tonight, if it clears out early enough.

I did see Venus in broad daylight yesterday though... well, before sunset anyway, though the sun was pretty low. This apparition is nothing like the one in 2012, when I managed to spot it in the middle of the afternoon a couple of times.
 
I remember one night when I was growing up, so it would have been 2 cycles ago...

Curtains of colour started at the zenith and cascaded down to the horizon for a full 360 degrees.
 
azure said:
The solar cycle is nominally 11 years, not 13, though the length does vary somewhat. (And to be precise, since the magnetic field polarity flips each time, the full cycle is 22 years.)

We had no chance to see the aurora last night as the clouds moved in shortly after sunset. Maybe tonight, if it clears out early enough.

I did see Venus in broad daylight yesterday though... well, before sunset anyway, though the sun was pretty low. This apparition is nothing like the one in 2012, when I managed to spot it in the middle of the afternoon a couple of times.
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Better call NASA and correct them. Oh, and send a memo to the sun also. It's on a 13 year cycle now..... according to NASA. Did you read the article? :mad2:
 
Geico266 said:
Better call NASA and correct them. Oh, and send a memo to the sun also. It's on a 13 year cycle now..... according to NASA. Did you read the article? :mad2:
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Considering the news rarely gets anything right with aviation stories, what makes you think they would get anything right with an astronomy story?

You do realize what Liz does for work, right?
 
Geico266 said:
Better call NASA and correct them. Oh, and send a memo to the sun also. It's on a 13 year cycle now..... according to NASA. Did you read the article? :mad2:
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Maybe it's my browser not displaying certain things (NoScript active), but I didn't see any reference in the WP article to a 13 year cycle. Anyway like I said, the length of each cycle varies a little and this one seems to be longer than average, measured from the last solar maximum. This maximum seems to have been unusually weak too. That doesn't mean that the Sun's cycle has changed permanently. Cycles can last anywhere from about 9 years to about 14 years.

Looks like the best chances of seeing a display today were in Asia and in the Arctic. Currently it doesn't look like there'll be anything visible down here except maybe on the northern horizon. I'd have to drive up to the airport to get a good unobstructed view in that direction. Not worth it. :no:
 
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