THE NEXT STORM IS COMING: NOAA forecasters have issued a G1-class geomagnetic storm watch for Jan. 4th and 5th when a CME and a stream of solar wind are expected to graze Earth's magnetic field. This should be a relatively minor event, much less intense than the severe G4-class storm of Jan. 1st. Nevertheless, high-latitude sky watchers (especially near the Artic Circle) could get a good show if the storm materializes. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: New sunspot AR3947 erupted on Jan. 3rd (1139 UTC), producing an X1.2-class solar flare. NOAA's GOES satellites recorded the extreme UV and X-ray flash:
Although this was a potent flare, it did not lift a significant CME out of the sun's atmosphere. It did, however, cause a shortwave radio blackout over Africa and the South Atlantic Ocean. More X-flares may be in the offing as AR3947 turns toward Earth this weekend. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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NOT ALL OF THOSE AURORAS WERE AURORAS: The realtime aurora gallery is full of photos from the Jan. 1st severe geomagnetic storm. Take a closer look. Not all of the auroras were actually auroras. Here's an example from Tapanui, New Zealand:
"I turned around from shooting aurora to find this red arc on display," says photographer Simon Evans. Researchers call this an "SAR arc."
SAR arcs were discovered in 1956 at the beginning of the Space Age. Researchers didn’t know what they were and unwittingly gave them a misleading name: "Stable Auroral Red arcs" or SAR arcs.
In fact, SAR arcs are not auroras. Auroras appear when charged particles from space rain down on the atmosphere, causing it to glow. SAR arcs form differently. They are a sign of heat energy leaking into the upper atmosphere from Earth's ring current system–a donut-shaped circuit carrying millions of amps around our planet.
An artist's concept of Earth's ring current, quiet (left) and active (right) [more]
On Jan. 1st, the ring current was pumped up by hours of intense geomagnetic storming, with energy dissipating downward into SAR arcs. Photographers caught their pure red glow from many locations in both Europe and North America.
Observing tip: The red color of SAR arcs is *so* pure, that many people cannot see it. The human eye is not very sensitive to its 630 nm wavelength. Cameras don't have the same problem, though. During the next strong geomagnetic storm, point your camera (even your phone's camera) at the sky and 'click.' You might catch an SAR arc.
more SAR images: from Martin McKenna of Lough Fea, N. Ireland; from Jay Shaffer of Taos County, New Mexico USA; from Alessandro Carrozzi of Casalgrande, Emilia-Romagna, Italy; from Aaron Watson of Paonia, Colorado; from Adrián Ramírez of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico; from Paul Martin of Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
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