SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT: Departing sunspot AR2964 just produced an M2-class solar flare: movie. The explosion on March 11th at 2232 UT caused a brief shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean. Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below ~20 MHz. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (CATEGORY G2): A full-halo CME is heading directly for Earth. ETA: late on March 13th. Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the storm cloud leaving the sun earlier today:
Note: The bright "star" at the lower right of the sun is Jupiter.
This CME is the result of a long duration C2-class solar flare near sunspot AR2962. Normally, C-class flares are not considered to be strong. However, this one lasted nearly 12 hours, allowing it to pump plenty of energy into the CME.
Moderately-strong G2-class geomagnetic storms are possible after the CME arrives. During such storms, naked-eye auroras may appear in northern-tier US states from Maine to Washington. Power grids and satellites will experience little to no effect, however.
A new model of the CME from NASA pinpoints the arrival time around 1800 UT on March 13th. In this animation, the yellow dot is Earth:
Geomagnetic storms, if they materialize, could spill into March 14th, making this a Pi Day geomagnetic storm. That's appropriate. After all, auroras form a circle around Earth's magnetic poles.
Take another look at the NASA model. The CME hits Venus less than a day before it reaches Earth. The CME won't spark a geomagnetic storm on Venus. It can't; the planet has no internally-generated global magnetic field. Instead, the impact will erode a small amount of atmosphere from Venus' unprotected cloudtops.
Geomagnetic storms: One of the perks of living on Earth. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on March 13-14. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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You can have it for $175.95. Swimming around a colorful crystal whirl, the playful dolphins are 100% 925 sterling silver with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain. The entire pendant is lead-free, nickel-free, cadmium-free, and totally hypoallergenic.
Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the dolphins in flight, and telling the story of their trip to the edge of space and back again. All sales support the student's cosmic ray research program.
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