CME SPARKS STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM: As predicted, a CME struck Earth during the early hours of Aug. 5th. 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.
David Blanchard sends this picture from Flagstaff, AZ:
“The aurora was not visible to the unaided eye,” says Blanchard, “but my camera picked it up in a 30-sec exposure as a band of pink just above the horizon.” Another sighting in Boulder, Colorado, confirms that photographic auroras spread to low latitudes.
more images: from Greg Ash of Ely, MN; from from Greg Dessart of Camano, WA; from James MacAlpine of Upper Michigan; from Paul Robinson of Boulder, CO
Did you miss the show? Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service received instant text messages when the CME hit and when the geomagnetic stom began. Give it a try.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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THE EVERSHED EFFECT: Something is sucking plasma out of big sunspots. (Earth is to ascend our evolution. We’re eating it.)
Earlier today, Maximilian Teodorescu observed the process in action from the Bucegi mountains of Romania: (Romamia is in the 4D Yellow Sun portal.)
“This is an animation of big sunspot AR3392,” he explains. “It shows material flowing out of the sunspot’s core for 17 minutes.”
This is known as “the Evershed Effect.” British astronomer John Evershed discovered the phenomenon in 1909 while he was working at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory in India. (The government of India made a postage stamp to celebrate his work — the first-ever stamp to highlight sunspot dynamics.) More than 100 years later, researchers still aren’t certain what causes the flows. A leading theory holds that material is being siphoned out of the sunspot through magnetic flux tubes, much like a milkshake sucked out of a straw.
(That’s what little children do to parents too! š . That is the dynamic of our relationship with the sun, our parent. We are loved and given what we need.)
The animation above is only a fraction of what Teodorescu saw. The full field of view shows the Evershed Effect happening around the complete circumference of the sunspot.
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