[Vision2020] Solar Storm Hitting Earth: Aurora Possible in Palouse Sky Tonight

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.examiner.com/x-10722-Austin-Science-Policy-Examiner~y2010m8d3-Large-solar-storm-headed-our-way

>From website above:

Large solar storm headed our way

 August 3, 6:59 AMAustin Science Policy
Examiner<http://www.examiner.com/x-10722-Austin-Science-Policy-Examiner>Steven
Andrew

Above, courtesy of NASA/SOHO <http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/>, a solar
flare shoots out of the sun headed for earth. After traveling 93 million
miles, the stream of charged particles are channeled by the earth's
geomagnetic field into columns leading to the poles. The energetic particles
strike the upper atmosphere above the arctic and antarctic circle at
hundreds of miles per second and light up the air, somewhat like the
electrons in a TV light up the screen. We see the display from the ground as
aurora. Depending on the earth's orientation, fall/spring vs winter/summer,
exceptionally powerful streams of charged particles can produce aurora well
past the polar regions and, in some cases, almost to the equator. The
1859 Carrington
Event <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859>, the most powerful
solar storm on record, lit up skies with aurora clear down to the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean islands.

It remains to be seen if this deal will live up to expectations or how far
south it will be visible if it does. Your best chance to find out is to be
far away from city lights, under a clear sky, looking toward the north
around midnight to 3:00AM Wednesday morning (After which the rising moon in
its waning quarter could spoil viewing), or starting an hour or two after
sunset on Wednesday evening through early Thursday morning.
---------------------------------------

We are in new solar cycle 24 after leaving a deep solar minimum that was
"...the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century."
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/03sep_sunspots/

>From NASA website above:

*September 3, 2009:* The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in
nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a
single tiny sunspot.
-----------------------------
Solar cycle 24 predictions presented by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center at
websites below:

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict_l.gif

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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