ANOTHER CME IS COMING: A magnetic filament connecting two sunspots erupted this morning, Aug. 5th (~0500 UT), hurling a CME into space. NOAA models predict a glancing blow on Aug. 8th. The impact could spark G1-class geomagnetic storms with a chance of escalating to G2 or G3 because Earth's magnetosphere is already energized by last night's impact. Keep reading. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
X-FLARE! Active sunspot AR3386 erupted again on Aug. 5th (2221 UT), producing a long-duration X1.6-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
The flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere. This, in turn, caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean: map. Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal and other propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz.
A CME is almost certainly emerging from the blast site. It won't be heading directly for Earth, but its flank might deliver a glancing blow on Aug. 8th or 9th, adding its energy to that of another CME already en route. Stay tuned for an updated forecast after we receive more data from SOHO coronagraphs. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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CME SPARKS STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM: As predicted, a CME struck Earth during the early hours of Aug. 5th (0253 UT). Sensors at the Canberra Magnetic Observatory in Australia measured a jolt of 22 nT to our planet's magnetic field. The impact sparked a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm with auroras in the USA as far south as Arizona.
"The aurora was not visible to the unaided eye," says David Blanchard, who took the picture outside Flagstaff, "but my camera picked it up in a 30-sec exposure as a band of pink just above the horizon."
Additional sightings in Missouri, Colorado and the Carolinas confirm that photographic auroras spread to low latitudes. "Photographic auroras" are nearly invisible to the human eye but easy targets for cameras with nighttime exposure settings. This storm also produced bright naked-eye auroras at higher latitudes such as Minnesota, Washington and Michigan.
Did you miss the show? Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service received instant text messages when the CME hit and when the geomagnetic storm began. Give it a try.
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