Aurora

I initially posted this as a continuation of thread drift elsewhere. But it deserves its own thread.

WOW!!!

We drove to a Puget Sound waterfront location for reduced (but still lots of) light pollution and no tree canopy obstruction. The first 45 minutes, it was spread across 2/3rds of the sky, but very very underwhelming. To the unsuspecting eye, it was just like ordinary suburban light pollution, with a few very high thin wispy clouds lit up from city lights below. But a knowing eye could see numerous changing features, and a decent camera revealed all the aurora colors. Not just a white or green or reddish show like I've seen, but all of them, and purple-ish too. No clouds anywhere.

Then it blew up.

My best ever.

Even with substantial light pollution, and streetlights preventing proper dark adaptation, it far far exceeded anything I'd seen in ideal dark-adapted star party conditions way back when. Even back at the house, with more artificial light and substantial tree interference, it was still the best ever, apart from the waterfront view.

I hope plenty of others here saw it, or still get to.

 

This event was photographed from the Florida Keys, Mazatlan, and southeast coast of Puerto Rico. The last two times auroras were seen from Puerto Rico were 1859 (Carrington event?) and 1921.

Spaceweather.com Time Machine

More than 800 amateur photos from around the globe posted here from a single night, I haven't had time to skim through them:

Spaceweather.com Realtime Image Gallery

More may be coming the next several nights. A big new flare occurred today, possibly adding to the show series.

 

That is like what we saw our first 45 minutes. Visually muted, but nice on camera (a cheaper Android for me, plus a decent real camera).

Then at about 10:50 pm local time, it absolutely exploded into a fantastic naked-eye show, even in town.

The NOAA-SPWC website aurora oval is starting much slower today, but is building now. Another major solar storm strike is hoped for on Sunday or Monday.

 

"On Saturday morning, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service said on its website that service had been degraded and its team was investigating. CEO Elon Musk wrote on the social platform X overnight that its satellites were “under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far.”"
AP: Solar storm puts on brilliant light show across the globe, but no serious problems reported

Looking at some older news reports, it appears that a previous lesser solar storm de-orbited most of a launch-load worth of Starlink satellites. As described by those reports, those satellites had been launched just before a forecast storm arrival, and were still at their initial 130 miles altitude, not yet having moved up to 340 miles. These types of storms dump a lot of energy into the "thermosphere" layer, puffing it up and adding a lot of drag to low satellites, sucking them down faster. For that still-low batch of Starlinks, it was fatal.

Some other space folks questioned why that batch was launched into an expected storm, instead of waiting until after it settled.

 

We did have a full view of the far side of the sun for a brief while, from the STEREO pair satellite mission. But these satellites were not permanently stationed over there, instead drifting around with orbits slightly faster (STEREO A) or slower (STEREO B) than Earth, with an ever-changing perspective compared to here. STEREO B died just before its pass across the far side, but provided pictures up until then. STEREO A survived, completing a full circle (relative to Earth) last year. Which means it is currently still too close to have a much different view than we have now.

A small fleet (6 to 8) of similar satellites, each launched a few years apart in just one direction, could keep a full 360 degree view of the sun. The one passing directly on the far side could not have a direct downlink to Earth, but could relay through the others. Or it could be allowed to go temporarily incommunicado, while its closest siblings ahead and behind provide angled coverage of the true far side.

We do have a partial view of the far side via "helioseismic holography". Not nearly equal to good solar cameras, but still not completely blind.

SOHO's SWAN instrument also provides some limited information about the far side.

http://jsoc.stanford.edu/data/farside/

 

Fantastic light show tonight too. Not as spectacular (so far) as the May 10 show, but tonight I'm viewing it from the rural farm, which has a much darker sky than the urban-edge location from which I viewed the May show. Dark enough to see lots of high speed flames or waves, crossing 30-45 degrees of view in about one second. And crossing over the zenith.

 

Last night, Spaceweather.com was reporting sightings from SoCal, Texas, and MIssissippi. This morning, it has extended that range to include Key West, the Canary islands, and Puerto Rico.

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

It looks like nearly 800 photo submissions to this on-line photo gallery from last night alone, including from Mazatlan, Mexico:

Spaceweather.com Realtime Image Gallery

 

^ That is greatly reduced from the forecast one day ago. Look lower on the page for the Kp= 9 example.