G5 Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Issued For First Time Since 2003 (axios.com) 32
Longtime Slashdot reader davidwr shares a report from Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC): On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch. At least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed and expected to arrive as early as midday Friday, May 10, 2024, and persist through Sunday, May 12, 2024. Several strong flares have been observed over the past few days and were associated with a large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster (NOAA region 3664), which is 16 times the diameter of Earth. [The agency notes this is the first time it's issued a G4 watch since January, 2005.] "Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth's surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations," NOAA said. "[The Space Weather Prediction Center] has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action." The agency said it will continue to monitor the ongoing storm and "provide additional warnings as necessary."
A visual byproduct of the storm will be "spectacular displays of aurora," also known as the Northern Lights, that could be seen for much of the northern half of the country "as far south as Alabama to northern California," said the NOAA. "Northern Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the majority of North Dakota appear to have the best chances to see it," reports Axios, citing the SWPC's aurora viewline. "Forecast models Friday showed the activity will likely be the strongest from Friday night to Saturday morning Eastern time."
UPDATE 6:54 P.M. EDT: G5 conditions have been observed -- the first time since 2003, says Broadcast Meteorologist James Spann.
This is a developing story. More information is available at spaceweather.gov, Google News, and the NOAA.
A visual byproduct of the storm will be "spectacular displays of aurora," also known as the Northern Lights, that could be seen for much of the northern half of the country "as far south as Alabama to northern California," said the NOAA. "Northern Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the majority of North Dakota appear to have the best chances to see it," reports Axios, citing the SWPC's aurora viewline. "Forecast models Friday showed the activity will likely be the strongest from Friday night to Saturday morning Eastern time."
UPDATE 6:54 P.M. EDT: G5 conditions have been observed -- the first time since 2003, says Broadcast Meteorologist James Spann.
This is a developing story. More information is available at spaceweather.gov, Google News, and the NOAA.
Uh oh (Score:3)
What situation will this be, Maximum Overdrive or Night Of The Living Dead?
Triffids (Score:3, Informative)
What situation will this be, Maximum Overdrive or Night Of The Living Dead?
It's Day of the Triffids [wikipedia.org].
Good time to download the 3d printable plans for a triffid gun [theslingshotforum.com].
Be sure to save to a local file before the internet goes out.
Re:Uh oh (Score:5, Interesting)
Neither. But it will be impressive if this storm even reaches the scale of the Carrington Event, when aurorae borealis were visible in Cuba and Hawaii.
This will be very interesting for researchers, including satellite navigation types. A colleague of mine who specializes in the ionosphere said that the WAAS [wikipedia.org] "extreme storm detector" for ionospheric disturbances tripped for the first time it was fielded. That detector was developed in response to the last G5 geomagnetic storms, 2003's Halloween solar storms -- but took five years to design and deploy.
My colleague expects that people in that field will be analyzing this storm for at least the next year, not least because the world today has so many more good stations collecting GNSS data and so many more GNSS satellites in orbit compared to 2003. (The number of observations scales with the product of number of ground stations and number of satellites, and the orbital design of GNSS constellations means that the additional data points are pretty evenly distributed.)
Aurora Watch (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Uh oh (Score:2)
In WV the sky was deep red and pale green with pale green god ray like shafts of light dancing around southward. At one point the pale green light looked as bright as the moon about to rise over the mountains only to turn deep red 5 minutes late. I was in awe.
Re: (Score:3)
> inb4 it's blamed on climate change
Not going to happen.
"The sun's activity has no significant impact on Earth's variable temperatures!"
Re:Timing (Score:5, Informative)
It does, and very much so. However, its activity during the last three decades was generally lower than historical averages.
The situation would have been worse if the Sun would have had a higher activity during this period.
Re: Timing (Score:1, Troll)
Re: (Score:1)
seems more likely he's angry.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm missing that Book in my copy of the Bible. Why can't Christians agree on which Books are canon? I don't have Apocrypha in my copy, but you'd think Catholics would be more into Trump if he was only in their version of the Bible.
Oh wait. This is only in the head canon of American Christian Nationalists. Not only is it made up, but nobody even bothered to document what they made up. ... that's going to end well /s
Re: (Score:2)
sorry for the unclosed <b> tag. I should have looked at the Preview.
Re: (Score:2)
"Next Pontiff, please!"
Fusion to blame (Score:2)
Carrington was X45 (Score:1)
This is X5.
Wake me up when it's over.
I don't believe it (Score:5, Insightful)
We're expecting K=8 solar activity... AND THE SKIES ARE CLEAR IN WESTERN WASHINGTON?!
No way... SOMETHING will happen and prevent us from seeing it here. It always does...
(I've seen aurora twice - but both times I was in northern Canada)
Re: (Score:3)
I saw it in north Alabama! First time I've ever seen the aurora.
Re: (Score:3)
The curse is broken! My daughter and I walked down the road (away from the neighbors' lights) and got a good view of them just now. They're fairly static - not like the ones I saw in Canada - but still way cool!
Re: (Score:2)
We're expecting K=8 solar activity
That's nothing! I once saw a K=9 [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
I see what you did there...
I have seen sun dogs in the arctic - they're pretty awesome.
Absolutely stunning views (Score:3)
I got to see it in the light pollution-free area between Barstow and Vegas. Barely, but I caught green glows. Meanwhile, my pals in Oregon were getting the full LSD experience.
Re: (Score:3)
Nice. We're seeing a dim red curtain on a webcam near Big Bear Lake, around LA's latitude.
https://bensweather.com/erwinc... [bensweather.com]
Electromagnetic bukkake (Score:2)
G4 or G5? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It was G4 first, then G5, and as I write it has been back at G4 for six hours. I would point you to https://www.spaceweather.gov/ [spaceweather.gov], but you might think "space weather" is just a name meant to wind you up....
Re: (Score:2)
Ukraine watch out (Score:2)
Aurora Australis (Score:2)
Great aurora over Tasmania and Southern Australia.
People are hoping for a repeat tonight and the Sun is just going down as I type.