#auroras

[sagitttarius]

Auroras in England, 10 May 2024

[maureen2musings]

Aurora & Milky Way

matalalta

[pangeen]

" Auroras On Jupiter " // © cosmic_traveller

Video: © Nasa

[illustratus]

Northern Lights by Anna Boberg

[mindblowingscience]

A severe solar storm sparked by an intense flare from the sun could reach "extreme" levels as it bombards Earth, officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned on Thursday (Oct. 10). Scientists with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Group (SWPC) said that a cloud of charged solar material, called a coronal mass ejection, slammed into Earth around midday, triggering a "severe" geomagnetic storm that could impact power grids and GPS and radio communications systems, as well as amplify aurora displays in regions that typically don't see them.

Continue Reading.

[aspaceinthecosmos]

auroras over washington state, taken by me on 5/10/24

the last photograph is my favorite, you can see arcturus (the bright star on the left) and the big dipper (right) as well as the stunning northern lights.

[kedreeva]

While we didn't get the light show that happened east of me, the sky in the north (1st pic) was definitely more pink and green than the sky to the west (2nd pic) to my camera last night. I still hope to be able to see auroras visible to the naked eye someday, particularly the ribbony kind instead of the haze of pink kind, but I'll take this for now.

[briery]

An astronaut took this photograph of the Aurora Australis in August 2017. At the time, the International Space Station was moving over the southern Indian Ocean towards the Great Australian Bight and Melbourne, Australia.

[oblivions-dawn]

𝔸 𝕊𝕝𝕠𝕨 𝔼𝕞𝕖𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖

a Skyrim journey, 83/?

[beauty-funny-trippy]

Heightened solar activity has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center to issue a geomagnetic storm watch for Aug. 9 and Aug. 10, 2024, coinciding more or less with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower (Aug. 11 and before dawn on Aug. 12).

If the predicted conditions are met, auroras might be visible as low as New York and Idaho, according to NOAA.

The reason for the storm watch are two plumes of plasma known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that erupted from the sun on Aug. 7 and are now barreling toward Earth.

(picture info: to get an idea of the massive scale of a CME, the white circle represents the size of the Sun hidden behind the round orange-red light shield)

Keep in mind that even if a CME hits Earth, the likelihood of auroras depends on the CME's magnetic field alignment with the Earth's magnetosphere.

The Perseid meteor shower peaks overnight on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12. The best time to look for Perseids is in the predawn hours. You can see the Perseid meteor shower best in the Northern Hemisphere, away from city lights, where the night sky is dark. Look toward the north-east, near the constellation of Cassiopeia.

If you're unable to hunt for Perseids in person you can watch the Perseid meteor shower online for free this weekend.

[merelygifted]

Astrophotographer captures stunning views of northern lights and STEVE during brief encounter (photo & video) | Space

During a brief solar substorm overnight between July 31 and Aug. 1, full-time aurora chaser Justin Anderson proved that “being in the right place at the right time” pays off big time when it comes to hunting the northern lights.

“While editing the photos indoors, I noticed our all-sky camera was recording STEVE. I rushed back outside and captured the photo over our shed.” Anderson told Space.com in an email.

Anderson’s impressive photo shows STEVE arching and twirling against a beautiful backdrop starring the Milky Way in all its glory. Anderson also caught the dynamic northern lights putting on a great show too.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to see STEVE, let alone catch it on camera. In fact, the strange phenomenon was only formally discovered between 2015 and 2016 by citizen scientists according to the first study published on STEVE in Science Advances in 2018. …

[sumbluespruce]

While you slept

8/12/24 In the wee hours.

[maureen2musings]

@imikegraphics

[pangeen]

" Aurora & Hut " // © Ray Mackey

[sagewraith]

Joanna Klink, Auroras

[dragons-in-spaceee]

people who didn’t see the auroras!!! Hi!! First of all I’m so sorry you missed out, they were spectacular, BUT DONT WORRY!! Right now, in the years 2024/2025, we are experiencing the PEAK of solar activity in the sun’s 11 year cycle. There have been so many huge sunspots already this year and we’re only getting started! Geomagnetic storms are common right now, so there’ll be at least a few more chances to see auroras in the coming year (given you’re not too close to the equator, as unfortunately a G5 storm is really rare, and that was what was required to produce auroras visible as far south as Florida and New Mexico). G3 storms seem to be quite common right now, and G4 are certainly possible again, which would almost definitely be visible quite far south. The best thing I would recommend is to check space weather websites! Not general news sites as they can often be misinformed and out of date (space weather forecasts change really quickly!!!). Here’s some websites in particular I recommend:

https://spaceweather.com - I check this site every day to get a summary of the day’s space weather and general space news. It also has a photo gallery where anyone can upload space pictures so you can see what people are seeing at that time.

https://spaceweatherlive.com - similar site but I find it less concise when it comes to a quick summary. It does have more of a hour by hour Kp forecast though. The best part of this website however is the Community channel, where people share what they’re seeing and their own personal predictions so you can get a live idea of what’s going on. It was so so useful for the storms at the weekend.

https://aurorasaurus.org - live map of where the auroras are and your chances of seeing them & other similar stuff

https://www.noaa.gov/ - where the official predictions come from

that’s all from me, good luck w the rest of the solar peak guys! Anyone with more knowledge feel free to add on, everything I’ve learned is from checking spaceweather.com every day for two years now :))