THE STORM IS SUBSIDING: Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from yesterday's Cannibal CME impact, but the storm is subsiding. The planetary K-index has dropped to 4, techically below the threshold of geomagnetic storms. The solar wind speed remains high (600+ km/s), however, which means Arctic sky watchers could see another round of auroras tonight. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
CANNIBAL CME SPARKS LOW LATITUDE AURORAS: Auroras in California? Believe it. Last night, the glow of a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm spread almost to Los Angeles. Aurora chaser Hongming Zheng took this picture just outside Lincoln CA at latitude +39N:
"This was my southernmost aurora sighting yet!" says Zheng. "A red glow and occasional pillars were visible to the naked eye. I was very pleasantly surprised with this unexpectedly strong geomagnetic storm."
More reds appeared in Joshua Tree, California (+34N). "I could not see them with my naked eye," says veteran observer Don Davis, "but my camera recorded these rare SoCal auroras."
The CME that sparked the display was a special "Cannibal CME"--that is, a mashup of multiple solar storm clouds striking Earth all at once. Cannibal CMEs contain tangled magnetic fields and compressed plasmas that often do a good job sparking auroras.
In Abisko, Sweden, the auroras were so bright they could be seen at sunrise:
"I almost slept through the storm," confesses photographer Oliver Wright. "I woke up just after 5am and I could see auroras through my bedroom window. So quick coffee and headed down to the bridge over the Abisko canyon. I was watching purple auroras getting washed out by the nautical sunrise. I've only ever seen that once before during the Saint Patrick Day geomagnetic storm of 2015."
more aurora images:from Marianne Bergli of Tromsø, Norway; from Marybeth Kiczenski of Bayfield, Wisconsin; from Markus Varik of Tromsø, Norway; from Chris Cook of Cape Cod, Massachusetts; from Greg Ash of Duluth Minnesota; from Genevieve of Greenwood, Maine; from Thomas Spence of Tofte, Minnnesota; from Shelley Johnson of Anacortes, Washington
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STERLING SILVER OPAL PENDANT: It's our most beautiful space pendant ever: The Sterling Silver Opal. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus just launched one to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here it is floating 103,018 ft above Earth's surface on Sept. 5th:
You can have it for $179.95. Wrapped in a sterling silver Celtic love knot, the opal is suspended from a matching 18-inch chain. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the opal in flight, telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
Opals are cousins of moonstones; in fact they look the same in low light. But when bright sunlight strikes an opal, something special happens. A spray of color emerges from the stone. This happened while the stone was in the stratosphere (see above) and it remains capable of this beautiful trick back on Earth.
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