CALM BEFORE THE STORM? Solar flare activity has been low for the past 24 hours. Could it be the calm before the storm? Sunspot AR3500 has an unstable delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for strong X-class solar flares. Any such explosions today will be geoeffective because the sunspot is almost directly facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
CANYON OF FIRE ERUPTION MIGHT GRAZE EARTH: A solar magnetic filament erupted this morning, Nov. 27th (~0500 UT), carving a canyon of fire in the sun's atmosphere:
The filament whiplashed a CME into space. The bulk of the storm cloud will pass south of Earth. However, a first-look NASA model suggests it could graze our planet's magnetic field on Nov. 30th. The impact, if it occurs, could spark a G1-class geomagnetic storm. Stay tuned for updates. CME alerts: SMS Text
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CME IMPACT SPARKS EUROPEAN AURORAS: A CME struck Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 25th, sparking 15 hours of geomagnetic storms. At the apex of the G2-category event, auroras were observed across most of Europe, visible to the naked eye despite nearly full moonlight. Graeme Whipps, who sends this picture from Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (+57N):
Note that Whipps' photo includes a vertical band of rare orange auroras. "What an incredible sight!" Whipps says.
Usually, when auroras visit Europe, they stop in places like Scotland, going no farther south. On Nov. 25th, however, the lights descended all the way to Italy. "I photographed faint red auroras in the northern sky from Sumirago (+45N)," says Italian photographer Paolo Bardelli:
"This was during the peak of the G2 activity," he says. "Because of the full Moon and glare from street lights, I could not see the auroras with my naked eye, but my camera was able to record their red glow."
Even farther south, Jure Atanackov photographed red auroras from Ljubljana, Slovenia. "These were our fourth aurora this month here at +41N geomagnetic latitude!" he says.
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