Northern Lights Comin?

[CosmicGarden]

Im not really techincal with mah words..(lol) so, I pasted part of an email that was sent to me on Thursday Sept 8th 2005. My question what area of the USA will the Northern Lights be seen?  I recently moved from Illinois to the very sourthern end of Texas, near South Padre Island...

Tks~


It is perhaps produnt to note that these strong solar flares pose no
known significant health threat to humans on the Earth. There is a greater
threat to human health for astronauts on the International Space Station, but
even they are relatively well protected in the heavily shielded regions of
the space station. The combined effects of the Earth's magnetic field and the
ionosphere protect human activities on Earth. However, some sensitive
industries on the ground can be adversely effected, including electrical
power generation facilities, ionospheric radio communications, satellite
communications, cellular phone networks, sensitive fabrication industries,
and others. During the next two weeks, these industries may see an increase
in anomalous incidents that may be attributed to space weather effects.

[BethKatz17582]

You're going to need the impact to be huge with a very negative Bz (I'm thinking -40 or more) to see the northern lights as far south as southern Texas. With a glancing blow like this, you probably won't get it. However, keep your eyes on the graphs and especially the Bz graph. That's the right hand one at the front page of http://www.spacew.com/index.php

But right now there's not even a low latitude (or middle latitude) aurora watch. You're definitely low latitude.

[CosmicGarden]

Hi Beth,

Hope ya, had a nice summer... Thanks so much for replying to my question! 

[Mithy1]

Hi All,
I am writing from Western NY, located right between the south end of Lake Ontario and North end of Lake Erie.  I have a question regarding the sunspot location.
Where does the sunspot need to be for us to get a good CME directed towards us?  On the SOHO pics it still looks a little like it's facing toward "outer space", resulting in only glancing blows  (I hope this makes sense to someone) LOL ;>).

[BethKatz17582]

Going back to the question about where the lights may be observed ... Now that there is a warning, it reads:
      OREGON TO SOUTHERN IDAHO AND NORTHERN UTAH TO WYOMING TO NEBRASKA TO
      NORTHERN MISSOURI TO SOUTHERN ILLINOIS TO KENTUCKY TO VIRGINIA.
And, of course, north of that.

[eddiestardust]

Beth,

Just woke up it's now 5:10 am..Did you see anything? Looks like I missed it again!

Ed

[unlivingsava]

you didn't miss a thing, in the days ahead there will be more, the warnbing is active untill 14 september

[babyhobbes]

Dang, you sure we didn't miss anything, looks there were quite a few reports.

I am hoping that with all the recent flares things will be great tonight.  Plus, we are supposed to have clear skies!!

[Prairie Journal]

I was out observing last night from 9:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and with success.

I went home and missed out on 7 hours of darkness - and displays.

I am wondering if I should have stayed out - but then again - I want to be out when there is major activity. While this show was active, I am seeing minimal reports of coronas and colors in the display (so I am kind of glad I got some sleep - rather than staying out all night).

I woke up at 4:45 a.m. and checked things. I kind of wish I had gone out to photograph until it got too light, just after 6 a.m.

However, I'll hope that it continues tonight - when thunderstorms go through the area. My chance for a special photo.

[babyhobbes]

I am very interested in seeing lightning bolts and aurorae in the same shot.  With any luck they go through reasonably quick so you aren't clouded over completely for too long.

[Prairie Journal]

Often times, storms will go through the area, and be totally clear behind. Or if the storm is off in the distance - to the north - it would show clouds in the lower part (and lightening), and the aurora overhead. It's very possible - just a timing thing.

And by the way, the show last night between 9:30 and 11:00 p.m. was really wierd. Kind of like one (I believe) in early September 2002. There was a general arc in the northern sky, some substorms close to the horizon (kind of like "K 4" substorms. And then there was this general glow that was overhead and to the south, from east to west, that would come and go. This seemed really strange. However, it was definitely worth the time to see.

[BethKatz17582]

I was out (mostly) from 11:45 or so until 1:30 (03:45 to 05:30 UT). I took a few 8 second exposures. Only one of those shows green on the northern horizon. It was about 04:38 UT. It's only worth mentioning because something did register on the camera but definitely not with my eyes. It was clear horizon-to-horizon with a beautiful view of the Milky Way, Andromeda, and two little shooting stars. (I'm at 40N in south-middle Pennsylvania.)

I knew I might regret coming in to go to sleep, but I have a bunch of things I have to get done today, and perhaps the aurora will be better tonight. I'm pleased that I didn't miss a tremendous show, but that's a risk we take waiting for nature.

I, too, would love to see a photo of aurora and a lightning storm. 

[babyhobbes]

So, anybody want to hazard a guess as to the aurora conditions for tonight?  I was thinking that maybe we wouldn't see anything until tomorrow night at the earliest from the last couple of smallish X flares from yesterday. 

[SnakeEyes]

Hey Beth I didn't wanna seem like a nag or anything but did you make any more progress on Mac aurora software in recent times?

[BethKatz17582]

Yes, I'll put a note down in the software part of the forum. A widgit is as much as I managed to get done. But I used it last night. ...