Geomagnetische storm:

As predicted, Earth is entering a stream of solar wind, and this is causing minor G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 11th. B.Art Braafhart sends this picture from Salla in the Finnish Lapland:


"Wow--a fabulous aurora outburst above Salla!" says Braafhart. "It was almost everywhere with purple colours and beautiful shapes."

More storms are in the offing as Earth moves deeper into the solar wind stream. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras mixed with moonlight on Nov. 11th and 12th.

​Bron: http://spaceweather.com/

Aurora's 24 november  (oorzaak: zie bovenstaand bericht):

Taken by Mia Stålnacke on November 24, 2016 @ Kiruna, Sweden

Taken by Marianne Bergli on November 24, 2016 @ Troms

Taken by bruce chandler on November 24, 2016 @ Glen Alps, Chugach Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska

Taken by B.Art Braafhart on November 24, 2016 @ Salla, Finnish Lapland

Taken by Steve Kenny on November 24, 2016 @ Porjus Norrbotten Sweden

Taken by Todd Salat on November 24, 2016 @ Anchorage, Alaska
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/ 



Taken by Rob Powell on November 25, 2016 @ Near Stonehaven, Scotland

Taken by Gunnar Lysell on November 24, 2016 @ Nyköping, Sweden
http://spaceweather.com/ | Gewijzigd: 25 november 2016, 13:30 uur, door Joyce.s

Het heeft even geduurd, maar we hebben een M klasse zonnevlam geregistreerd

Yesterday, Nov. 29th, new sunspot AR2615 erupted, producing an impulsive M1-class solar flare.  NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the flash of extreme ultraviolet (UV) radiation:

Following months of negligible solar flare activity, the sudden emergence of AR2615 and its subsequent explosion caught forecasters off guard.  A pulse of UV and X-radiation from the explosion ionized the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean: map. 

This affected the normal propagation of radio waves.  Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed brief fade-outs and/or unexpected hops at frequencies below ~10 MHz. 

This was a relatively minor event, notable mainly because of the quiet that preceded it. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of additional M-flares on Nov. 30th. 
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/ 

Hieronder: de M klasse zonnevlam


Bron: solarham.net

Hieronder: de magnetogram. Hoe meer interactie er is tussen de rode en blauwe gebieden, hoe groter de zonnevlammen worden.

 

De geomagnetische storm is gearriveerd

Met een snelheid - op dit moment - van 612,7 km/s en een dichtheid van 5,3 protonen/centimeter3 zit de aarde nu middenin de zonnestorm, met als gevolg mooie aurora borealis.

Earth is now fully inside a stream of solar wind flowing from a large coronal hole on the sun. The buffeting action of the stream is causing intermittent auroras around the Arctic Circle--some of them quite bright.  "We had a fantastic display in northern Sweden," reports Oliver Wright, who sends this picture from Abisko National Park:

photo Oliver Wright

"This was an aurora storm within a storm," says Wright, who spent the evening guiding a group of sky watchers for Lights over Lapland. "We went out in 100% clouds, strong winds and blowing snow. Suddenly, the clouds parted and the guests got to see a full-on aurora storm."

The stream of solar wind powering these auroras is broad, and it could take Earth two or three days to cross it. Arctic observers should be alert for more lights on Dec.9th and 10th. 
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/ 

Taken by Sarah Skinner on December 8, 2016 @ Abisko, Sweden


Taken by Bernard Marschner on December 8, 2016 @ Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

Bron: http://spaceweather.com/  | Gewijzigd: 31 januari 2017, 15:47 uur, door Joyce.s

Et Voila, daar is hij dan

De korste dag van het jaar, ziet er kleurrijk uit.

As predicted, Earth is entering a stream of high speed solar wind on Dec. 21st. First contact produced a surge of ground currents in Lofoton, Norway--"a good sign for very nice Northern Lights," says Rob Stammes who measured the disturbance.  Indeed, bright auroras are now dancing around parts of the Arctic Circle. Marketa S. Murray photographed these over Fairbanks, Alaska:

It's a winter wonderland up here," says Murray. "We got 8 inches of fresh snow, clear skies, and the auroras are amazing."

This is just the beginning. The solar wind stream is broad and Earth is expected to remain inside it for days. NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Dec. 21-22. These are the longest nights of the year in the northern hemisphere; Arctic sky watchers will have plenty of darkness for aurora sightings.
Bron: http://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html

Kerstaurora's

Auroras are usually green. Occasionally, other colors appear: red, purple, blue. One color that never shows itself, however, is white--that is, not until last night. "I saw white auroras over Tromsø, Norway!" reports veteran observer Markus Varik. He recorded the phenomenon in this photo:

I've been working more than 400 nights as a Northern Lights guide, and although sometimes I think I've seen it all, never I have witnessed white auroras like that," says Varik. "It was amazing to see it unravel white like that in front of my eyes. Pure magic!"

Auroras get their colors from specific elements in Earth's upper atmosphere. Green auroras, for instance, come from atomic oxygen; blue is associated with molecular nitrogen. No element produces white. So where did it come from?

An important clue: Elsewhere in Scandinavia, intense ribbons of pale pink appeared. Here is a specimen recorded by an automated auroracam in Abisko, Sweden:

Sarah Skinner, a tour guide with Lights over Lapland, saw the display: "OMG, it was the pinkest aurora ever!"

The 'white auroras' Varik photographed might actually be pink auroras filtered and paled by low-hanging clouds. Indeed, there is a strong hint of pink in Varik's photo.

Pink auroras are somewhat rare, but hardly unprecedented. They appear when  energetic particles from space descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below. 

auroracam lapland: http://lightsoverlapland.com/webcams/ 

Bron: http://spaceweather.com/

Coronaal gat aardegericht en plasma filament

Op dit moment hebben we een aardegericht coronaal gat, die ons over circa 3 dagen (27e) weer noorder- en zuiderlicht zal gaan bezorgen.De zonnewind heeft op dit moment een snelheid van 446,3 km/s, dit zal dan nog gaan oplopen.


Daarnaast is er op dit moment een enorm plasma filament te zien, met een lengte van zo'n 80.000 km.

Mocht deze "los raken" dan zal hij niet aardegericht zijn.

Tevens heeft de zon enkele zonnevlekken. Echter, als het al tot een uitbarsting komt, verwacht ik niet dat het meer zal zijn dan een C-klasse (lichte uitbarsting). 

Bronnen:
http://spaceweather.com/ 
http://solarham.net/latest_imagery/mag1.htm 

G2 geomagnetische storm, zorgt voor "groene bergen" in Noorwegen

During an outburst of Northern Lights, most people stare at the sky. Sometimes, however, it pays to look at the ground. "On Feb. 18th, the mountains around us turned green," reports Didier Van Hellemojt from Tromsø, Norway, more than 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. "The snowy slopes reflected the color of the green auroras overhead.

©Didier Van Hellemojt
Green terrain could become a common sight in the nights ahead. Earth is inside a wide stream of solar wind that will influence our planet, off and on, for the rest of the month. Activity could reach a crescendo at the end of February when, according to NOAA analysts, G2-class geomagnetic storms could erupt around the Arctic Circle.
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/

Pollen Corona en aurora borealis

In parts of New Mexico, people are starting to sneeze--and see colorful rings around the sun. The two experiences are related.  They are both manifestations of pollen.  Photographer Harald Edens of Magdalena NM explains: "Every year in late February or early March, the juniper trees in New Mexico produce pollen. The pollen particles are all quite small and uniform in size; as a result, they scatter sunlight and produce colored rings around the sun."

"Today's pollen corona was by far the most intense I have observed in New Mexico over the past 14 years, with up to four orders (repeated color bands) readily visible to the unaided eye," Edens continues. "The pollen is so abundant that it appears like smoke coming off the juniper trees whenever there is a gust of wind, or a bird lands in a tree."

Readers, if you see a pollen corona, here's something else to look for: The colorful rings are not always circular.  Pollens are non-spherical; many have air sacs to help carry them in the wind. These align the grains to give beautiful elliptical coronas with bright spots.
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/ 

Aurora's:

Earth is moving deeper into a solar wind stream  flowing from a hole in the sun's atmosphere. With wind speeds topping 600 km/s, the stream is buffeting our planet's magnetic field and sparking bright auroras round the Arctic Circle.  Frank Olsen sends this picture from Morfjord at Lofoten, Norway:

©Frank Olsen
Click here to see Olsen's complete panorama. "We expected a G1 show last night," he says. "It didn't quite reach that strength, but I was still quite satisfied with what we got."

NOAA forecasters say there is a 50-50 chance that G1-class magnetic storms willoccur on Feb. 24th.  That means the next photos could be even better. 
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/ 

On Feb. 22nd, shortly after midnight, bright green auroras erupted over Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range. Researchers from Dartmouth College promptly launched a rocket into the glowing maelstrom. Photographer Marketa Murray of Fairbanks captured the event in a perfectly-timed self-portrait:

"We tuned into the Poker Flat Research Range radio for a heads-up that the rocket was about to launch," explains Murray. "The picture shows both stages of the Black Brant IX sounding rocket burning for the ionosphere."

The goal of the mission, named ISINGLASS (Ionospheric Structuring: In Situ and Groundbased Low Altitude Studies) is to decipher the mysterious shapes of the aurora borealis. Some auroras look like flames, others like swirls, ripples or curtains. The rocket was designed to scatter an array of sensors into the auroral zone, mapping the particles and fields underlying these forms.

"Auroras are the last step of a chain of processes connecting the solar wind to the atmosphere," says Dr. Kristina Lynch of Dartmouth, the mission's principal investigator. "We are seeking to understand what structure in these visible signatures can tell us about the electrodynamics of processes higher up." 

"It was a beautiful launch with an extensive set of collaborative ground based data, and will make a great study," she says.

Ultimately, the results could allow researchers to look up at the sky and, based on little more than the shapes they see, predict conditions at the edge of space. Was the mission a success?
Bron: http://spaceweather.com/ 

Pink aurora's:

Yesterday, the solar wind was supposed to slacken, prompting auroras around the Arctic Circle to fade. Instead, the wind quickened and there was an explosion of pink.  "The display on March 5th was so intense, even the fjords changed color," reports Markus Varik, who sends this picture from Tromsø, Norway:

©Markus Varik

The auroras were amazingly colorful, and I was able to catch their reflections in the nearly still waters of the fjord," Varik explains. 


Flamboyant displays of pink were also seen in Finland and Sweden, and caused some observers to cry out in amazement--"Wow, it's pink!"


The pink color is probably a sign of nitrogen. Most auroras are green--a verdant glow caused by energetic particles from space hitting oxygen atoms 100 km to 300 km above Earth's surface.  Pink appears when the energetic particles descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below. Such deep-penetrating particles are being produced by the solar wind stream now blowing around Earth.

Arctic sky watchers should remain alert for pink (and other colors) as the solar wind continues to blow faster than 600 km/s on March 6th.
Bron:
http://spaceweather.com/