S3 (Strong) Solar Radiation Storm In Progress

[gristy]

The ongoing S2 (Moderate) Solar Radiation Storm has intensified to an S3 (Strong) event as of 2320 UTC (6:20 p.m. EST) today, January 8. Protons should stay at this same approximate level for the next few hours, then likely take another jump with the passage of the shock ahead of the CME, expected to occur around 0900 UTC (4:00 a.m. EST) tomorrow, January 9. However, this increase is not expected to exceed the S3 level. The CME is forecast to set off G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm activity through January 9 and 10. Aurora watchers should be ready; updates here as things unfold.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

[Warpy]

1. The Aurora should be visible as far south as Colorado

Sadly, it won't get to us here in NM.

[2naSalit]

2. I've seen it in Santa Rosa

before (early 1980s), and watched it all the way through Kansas that night. Had to pull over and just look several times because I couldn't stop looking out the side window and was not paying attention to the road.

It's pretty overcast up here in MT so I doubt I'll get to see it this time. There was also an M Class flare later this afternoon. could extend things a bit.


http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=2038-01-23%2000:44:00&window=-1&cygnetId=40

http://solarimg.org/artis/

[Warpy]

3. I have never seen it, honestly

Boston was so polluted with traffic smog only a couple of the brightest stars were ever visible and only when a front had come through and swept most of the gunk out to sea. I also lived in cities growing up, so it was not only too late, it was also too smoggy when I was a kid.

Even with coal furnaces a thing of the past, nothing much is visible.

[2naSalit]

4. I didn't get to see it this time

because it's been snowing for the past twenty-seven hours. And i stayed up to see just incase there was a temporary clearing.

I have seen it in Madison, WI and northern WI several times. Once in the summer of 1983 it was so intense in Madison that I saw it under massive lights in a hospital entryway. When I got home a few blocks away but not so well lit, I could even hear it as waves of rainbow colors moved about overhead. I was amazed. But Madison isn't a very smoggy city. I can imagine there isn't much you can see through the smog. I remember LA in the 70s through the 90s and you could barely see Venus through that stuff and the moon didn't cast a shadow. Yuk.

Up here at 7K ft., you can see so much it give you chills up your spine to realize how much is out there. And just looking through some binos will really give you something to keep you awake at night! The only smog here is from wild fires anywhere west of here and exhaust from those damned two-stroke snowmobiles that hangs in the air for a long time when it's cold out.

[Warpy]

5. Yuk, snowmobiles

I lived near a cranberry bog on Cape Cod and every snowfall, jerks on snowmobiles would be down there, going around and around, roaring engines and two stroke stink fouling the air. I can relate to your pain, that wonderful hush of a new snowfall being shattered by clods with more money than brains.

Better were the people who'd cross country ski to work in Boston whenever the roads got covered.

[2naSalit]

6. Yeah it's worse than extreme cold

most of these riders are farmers from the plains states, those Farm Bill subsidies buy them new pick up trucks and snowmobiles and a few weeks in Yellowstone country every winter... must be nice. Meanwhile, I'm lucky to get a minimum wage job to clean their rooms or cook/serve them breakfast or dinner, they aren't good tippers either. It comes with the exhaust. I think that any sense of decency they may possess simply disappears when the helmet goes on.