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Posts Tagged ‘CME’

Ephemeris: 05/14/2024 – Last Friday’s geomagnetic storm

May 14, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 9:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:13. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 3:08 tomorrow morning.

Last Friday night’s displays of the Northern Lights were seen as far as the Caribbean, making the greatest what is called a geomagnetic storm of the last 20 years, and up there with the greatest storms ever recorded. Last Wednesday there was an immense solar flare coming from a large sunspot group on the Sun. That group was large enough to be able to be seen with eclipse glasses. So you might want to keep those eclipse glasses handy, and check out the Sun every once in a while. Only the largest sunspot groups will be visible. The flare causes the ejection of the part of the Sun’s corona, what astronomers call the coronal mass ejection or CME for short. These charged particles were intercepted by the Earth’s magnetic field and caused the aurora we saw.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The eruption of a CME, on May 8 that caused the aurora on the 10th recorded by the C3 coronagraph on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
The eruption of a CME, on May 8 that caused the aurora on the 10th recorded by the C3 coronagraph on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite in halo orbit of the Earth-Sun L1 point, a million miles sunward of the Earth. A coronagraph produces an artificial total solar eclipse using a disk in place of the moon to block the bright disk of the Sun. The two bright stars are the planets Jupiter on the left and Venus on the right. They will both cross behind the Sun with Jupiter leaving the evening sky and entering the morning sky and Venus leaving the morning sky and entering the evening sky. Credit: ESA. NASA.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, The Sun Tags: , , , ,

The CME from Monday hit the earth’s magnetic field at 10:10 a.m. EST

January 24, 2012 Comments off

A geomagnetic storm is now raging above us and is inducing currents in the ground and transmission lines.. On the bright side look for a aurorae (Norther or Southern Lights) tonight!

Categories: Observing Tags: , ,

Another possible aurora due Tuesday January 24th, 2012

January 23, 2012 Comments off

Just got this from http://www.spaceweather.com that a CME erupted from the sun today. It should reach the earth later tomorrow or early Wednesday. Look for aurorae (northern or southern lights depending on your hemisphere).

Categories: Aurorae, Observing Tags: ,

09/26/11 – Ephemeris – The sun is getting very active again

September 26, 2011 Comments off

Monday, September 26th.  The sun will rise at 7:34.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 7:32.   The moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:53 tomorrow morning.

There is a large sunspot group rotating onto the earth facing side of the sun.  It has already produced two large solar flares.  Flares are explosions caused by the snapping of the magnetic field lines that cause the sunspots in the first place.  The most energetic of these throw off a huge cloud of charged particles, protons, electrons, and alpha particles called a coronal mass ejection or CME at a couple of million miles an hour.  It takes 36 to 48 hours for the cloud to reach the earth.  Then it tangles with the earth’s magnetic field causing a geomagnetic storm.  This is not good news for satellite operators and power and phone companies in the north.  However for the rest of us, we get a chance to see the northern lights or Aurora Borealis.  Saturday’s two flares from that sunspot group sent out a CME that we may catch the tail of later today.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Categories: Aurorae, Ephemeris Program, Sun Tags: , , , ,