There are many effects of solar flares, whether it’s on GPS satellites to power grids to cell phone networks, but the biggest question asked by the most people is: “Are we going to be able to see the Northern Lights???”

“What are the chances?”

“Where do I look?”

“When is the best time to see the Northern Lights?”

To these questions there is no easy answer. ——> Here is the official Aurora Forecast for North America. <——

I think the best time to look out for the Aurora Borealis is simply…this evening, after twilight. Get out of the city lights, look up and to the north. By all indications, our sky should remain mostly clear this evening and overnight.

Aurora Resources
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
http://www.spaceweather.com/
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/NorthAmerica/
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=arx&storyid=80301&source=0
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html 

Posted under Space Weather

While we had snow fall here Monday morning, a storm on the sun was going on.  The NWS Space Weather Prediction Center says that this is the largest solar flare eruption on the sun  since back in 2005.  Along with this solar flare, there was a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).  The CME is  a massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space.  This CME will then interact with the Earth’s Magnetic Field possibly creating auroras!  Now the 1 million dollar question is will we get in on them?  Scientists say they don’t anticipate far southern states to see them like they did back in October, but they say it does appear we will at least have a shot up here.   If they do make it down this far the other issue would be cloud cover.  High pressure will be in the area, but it may not be enough to keep skies completely clear.

Solar flare that erupted on the Sun Sunday evening (From NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory )

The storm is expected to impact Earth Tuesday morning, with the effects still being felt for a couple of days so it looks like the best chance to see auroras will be Tuesday night  (24th) and Wednesday night (25th)

Here is a link to the full article.   We will keep you posted on this potential aurora sighting.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=crh&storyid=78009&source=0

Posted under Astronomy, just cool, Space Weather

The Perseid meteor shower has been going on the past few days and will be peaking Friday night into Saturday morning (the 12th-13th of August, 2011). According to the experts, the best viewing will be just prior to dawn on Saturday morning. Hopefully, clouds from Friday’s rain will have cleared out by then, but there is a chance that clouds may foul things up for southern Minnesotans and northern Iowans.

Meteors will also be visible along with the Full Sturgeon Moon (which will actually obscure visibility of the faintest meteors) and a couple passes of the International Space Station! (more)

When will you be able to see the International Space Station fly over you? Check here or here.

Posted under Space Weather

There’s been an uptick in activity on the sun recently. A massive solar flare erupted very early Tuesday morning, but according to Spaceweather.com, the energy is not Earth-directed. From their site…

“MAJOR FLARE, NOT EARTH-DIRECTED: On August 9th at 0805 UT, sunspot 1263 produced an X7-class solar flare–only the third X-flare of new Solar Cycle 24 and the most powerful so far…The brunt of the explosion was not Earth directed. Nevertheless, radiation from the flare created waves of ionization in Earth’s upper atmosphere, briefly disrupting communications at some VLF and HF radio frequencies. The blast also accelerated a mild torrent of protons toward Earth; they can be seen speckling the images in this SOHO movie of a CME emerging from the blast site. The CME will probably miss Earth. At this time, however, we cannot rule out a glancing blow from the flank of the cloud on August 11th or 12th. Stay tuned for additional analysis.”

What would happen if a major solar storm was indeed directed toward Earth? For starters, the Auroras would be awesome. There would be a bunch of other stuff messed up though, including your toilets. What? Your toilets? Check out this article from Forbes.

Posted under Space Weather

Tonight (8/6)..we have a chance to see some scattered thunderstorms, but if the skies can stay clear, we also have the chance to see something that is kind of rare in our area….the Northern Lights!!  A large storm on our Sun is the cause of this.

Solar flares are ejected from the sun and thrown into outer space.  The energy from this hits the magnetic field around the Earth and excites oxygen and nitrogen molecules high in the Earth’s atmosphere.  The end result is beautiful streaks of color that dance across the sky called the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights.  This atmospheric phenomenon rarely makes it this far south, but during strong solar storms, such as our current one, they most certainly can.

So we are hoping for clear skies tonight, if we get them, here our a couple of tips.

First, patience is a virtue.  They come in bursts, there could be nothing going on for some time and then all of a sudden they will appear so you may have to sit aside a couple of hours to view them.

Second, try to get away from as much light as possible, the light will hurt the viewing.

The best time to view is around midnight and a couple of hours before and after.

For us, the northern lights will be seen lower in the atmosphere than in higher latitudes.  Even with all of these measures in place we still may not see them..its the luck of the draw, but there is a chance.  If you do see them, send us some pictures on our facebook page at facebook.com/KTTCweather or e-mail us at weather@kttc.com.  I was trying to post some pictures, but there is something wrong with our server.

GOOD LUCK!

Posted under Astronomy, Earth Stuff, just cool, Rochester, Space Weather, Uncategorized

Right now, our chances aren’t looking too good. Here’s the latest update from spaceweather.com

“IMPACT! A CME hit Earth’s magnetic field at approximately 0100 UT on Feb. 18th (7:00 pm CST on Feb. 17th). The impact was not as strong as expected considering the cloud’s probable X-class origin. Nevertheless, geomagnetic storms are possible in the hours ahead. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.”

Reading between the lines, and looking at the charts available through that website, I’m skeptical we’ll have Northern Lights over southern MN tonight. However, these types of events are very difficult to forecast…

Posted under Space Weather

While I’m not overly optimistic we’ll be able to see this, it’s worth a shot! Tonight, go outside and look north. If we’re lucky, we’ll be treated to a showing of the Northern Lights, or, the Aurora Borealis.

On Sunday, a solar flare and large coronal mass ejection (CME for short) from the sun sent a chunk of energy toward earth.

“This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th,” astronomer Leon Golub said in a statement from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “It’s the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time.”

Courtesy of NASA. The dark arc you see on the upper right is part of the CME, and the bright spot is a solar flare.

So, in return, there’s a possibility for some beautiful, wave-y colors to strike tonight. The light displays are caused by interaction with the particles of solar energy and the earth’s magnetic field. Typically seen at the higher latitudes, the scale of this sun storm will give the northern tier (Maine to Michigan and further north!) of the United States a good chance to see them.

Solar storms are cool to the eye, but bad news for all our sensitive technology (power grids, satellites included). Forecasters are not expecting this storm to be severe enough to negatively impact aforementioned objects.

There’s evidently a second, slower wave that will arrive August 4th-5th. That could give us another viewing opportunity. My suggestion? Keep your eyes to the northern skies overnight this week!

Posted under Space Weather

Last February a new satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, was launched. NASA scientists held a press conference this past Tuesday to show off the first images to come from the solar telescope. Check out the story and the full suite of images. Enjoy!

Posted under Astronomy, Space Weather

Then take a look at these images from the refurbished Hubble Telescope!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/ero/index.html

Posted under Space Weather

The weather’s cooperating for tonight’s apparent “peak” of the Perseid Meteor Shower! The one caveat, however, appears to be a fairly bright moon, which will cut back on the darkness in the sky.

Head away from the city lights – looks like the best bet to catch some good viewing conditions will be early tonight (9-11pm?), according to NASA, when the moon is still hanging low in the sky.

To read more about this annual, stellar event – check out this story from NASA. Good luck viewing and have fun!

Posted under Space Weather