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G3 Solar Storm 118

Posted by timothy from the feel-the-radioactivity-*be*-the-radioactivity dept.
Thanks to VerucaDave (and goatbert) for passing on this NOAA advisory. Seems that the people of Earth are experiencing the effects of a little solar action. And kevlar wrote with the news "There are sightings, as we speak of the Aurora Borealis, as far south as Washington DC. ... This is a rare anomaly to be seen so far south. To see it, look north right now (best time is around/after midnight). See if you can spy some fast moving particles! If your latitude is anywhere north of DC, then you should see something with a little effort!" So if you are anywhere on Earth where it still matters, run -- do not walk -- to the nearest spot from which you can scan the sky. May you have clear skies and no light-polluting neighbors. [Updated 14:40GMT by timothy.]

On a related note, periscope sent in some information about some new satellites that are going up to study this summer's expected solar storms. They're also looking for names for the satellites: here's your chance to put your name in the sky, so to speak. I vote for Andre, Libe, Setsuko and Golfball.
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G3 Solar Storm More

G3 Solar Storm

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  • I'm nowhere near DC, so please do fire your missile. Hopefully you'll take out some unneeded senators or something...
  • More specificly, 38.92056 Latitude, -77.06575 Longitude, 0 Altitude
  • Ouch. That's got to be expensive. You should be using Cheap Long Distance Wireless Networking [slashdot.org]! All you need is a few million signal boosting antennae, and you'll be on your way.
  • Had i not seen someone else mentioning this, i would have chalked it up to my own eyes playing tricks, but yes, at 4:18 am EST Ithaca, NY (US): 42n26, 76w30 to the north, the sky was faintly red in color, it illumintaed such even through several of the clouds that were in the sky
  • I was referring to bulk in terms of population, not land area. If the northern half of the land mass of the contiguous 48 states have a decreasing-to-zero-as-you-go-south chance of seeing the northern lights, and definitionally the large bulk of that population lives in the larger light-emitting cities, I think it's safe to say that the vast bulk of the POPULATION of the US will never see the Northern Lights.

    So, I was a tiny bit unclear, but most folks at least seemed to know what I meant.
    --
  • I dont want to speak for anyone, but it sounds like a lot of hubub over nothing. We can get the pics from the internet.

    You can do that for sex, but the effect is not quite the same.

    Hmm, given that I'm talking to the Slashdot crowd, perhaps a better analogy is playing Quake versus seeing some screenshots? :-)
  • I'm pretty far south, I didn't think I'd be able to see anything at all. What I did see was a very faint flickering of the whole southern sky, at about 10 minutes to midnight, and again at about 5 minutes to midnight. The second one had a definate greenish tint. Nothing like the auroras I saw about 10 years ago in Northern Wisconsin, rays and curtains of green and red light. That is a sight I shall never forget.

    I'm in Arroyo Grande, CA, fairly rural, definately free of light pollution, and other pollution. About 250 miles south of San Francisco.

    I wish I had a nickel for every time someone said "Information wants to be free".
  • From: owner-sun-earth@skypub.com on behalf of Cary Oler
    [oler@solar.spacew.com]
    Sent: April 7, 2000 5:57 AM
    To: sun-earth@skypub.com
    Subject: AstroAlert: Major Auroral Storm Updated Conditions - 07 April

    UPDATED AURORAL STORM CONDITIONS (09:55 UTC, 07 APRIL):

    The largest auroral storm of the current solar cycle has, for all
    intents and purposes, now ended. The magnetic fields which were driving
    this auroral storm have now returned to background levels. The auroral oval
    has quieted significantly over the last three hours. Although there will
    probably be some residual substorm activity over the higher latitudes during
    the next 24 hours, there will not be a recurrence of the auroral storming
    for most middle latitude locations. The middle latitude auroral activity
    warning and the low latitude auroral activity watch have been terminated.

    There were a large number of people who were able to witness this event
    and report their findings. The list, which is still growing, is available
    for public viewing at: http://www.spacew.com/www/auroras.html.

    We would appreciate observational reports from any other individuals
    who witnessed this activity. Observations may be reported using the form
    at the URL: http://www.spacew.com/www/subaurora.html. Even though the storm
    has now ended, we would appreciate reports from observers for the final
    archived record.

    We have received complaints that our warning was received too late to
    be useful. It can take many hours for the e-mail to reach all of the e-mail
    boxes of everyone subscribed to this list. For those who have experienced
    this problem, or for those who would like to receive more rapid warnings,
    you may want to consider subscribing to our private lists at:
    http://www.spacew.com/www/sublists.html
    Delivery of the watches and warnings for auroral activity on that list
    reached all subscribers within 15 minutes as opposed to the almost 6 hours
    it may have taken to reach some subscribers of AstroAlert. The material
    e-mailed is, however, a bit more technical and may not be for everyone. We
    try to simplify the material for those on the AstroAlert list and believe it
    may be more enjoyable to read and easier for most people to decipher.

    Our thanks go out to all of those who have contributed (and will yet
    contribute) their observations during this auroral storm event.

    Those who are interested in maintaining an eye on higher latitude
    auroral activity may want to check out the near-real-time all-sky camera
    images available from the Canadian Space Agency at:
    http://www.sp-agency.ca/www_forms/rt_asi.htm. Any residual substorm activity
    should be visible there.

    There are other good sites on the Internet as well (too many to list
    here), such as the all-sky camera images and the updated all-sky auroral
    activity movies made available from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska
    (http://www.pfrr.alaska.edu).

    ** End of Update **
  • So is this what they're going to blame the current rash of Slashdot trouble on? Solar activity?
  • And there I was, all set to get rich meeting the overwhelming demand for beach front houses in Antarctica.
  • There's a little known but always observed law in NC that says that the skies must be overcast anytime there's going to be one of these interesting once in a lifetime things going on in the sky that would otherwise actually be visible here in "the goodliest land under the cope of heaven".
  • Polaris is not at the magnetic north... the northern lights center on the magnetic north pole which should be North East of your position... hmm... for me the Big Dipper is directly over head...

    I just poked my head outside... I have a nice standing "curtain" structure aurora directly over my head. If you can see this it would be to your NorthWest (obviously)...

    No, I'm not daft... aurora curtains start at 3 to 5 miles up and if I remember right they can go several miles into space. This is an exceptional curtain that just appeared... not motion whatsoever... holy cow I've never seen it that tall... it's covering half the sky.

    It's so odd that it's not moving at all... just getting brighter.

    I'm going to log out and stare at it from my window for a bit.

    - // Zarf //
  • I'm in alaska right now, just south of the artic circle... stuck my head outside and I can't see a thing. It's a nice starry night out and there is little light pollution to mess up the view.

    Kind of ironic. I'm too far north to see the northern lights!

    Oh, well it's not like I don't see them every other night anyway. On the plus side I've got a great view of the Alaska Range by star light tonight.

    - // Zarf //
  • > Just three frickin latitiude degrees south of
    > DC.. that sucks... anyone see it?

    *LOL*
    I'm too far North! (Fairbanks Alaska)
    sincerely, get in your car and drive... if you can see the Aurora during a good period of solar activity it is the most frightening and awesome sight you could see.

    I've lived under the northern lights for 10 years now and I still get up to go watch them.

    Some shows are better than others... I remember a solar storm in 1989 that was spectacular... the plasma curtains would move rapidly then pulse like rivulets of light consuming the whole sky in a spider's web.

    I've seen the aurora flash like lightning for 10 or 15 minutes, disappear, then glow like a neon sign for hours. Spring is the best time for aurora watching... by May the sun only sets for a few hours and you don't see the aurora or stars again until September.

    Well, I've spewed enough... go and get a live gander of it, one of the true natural wonders of the world... and it's high energy plasma too!

    - // Zarf //
  • First of all, there was the spectacular show when the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were visible in a group together just an hour after sunset - marvelous :)

    Then imagine my surprise when at about 12:30 am (BST) I walked out of my house in North London, and said to myself "It's awfully light looking out here, but the moon has set!?!"

    I slowly looked up, and there was a most spectacular light show going on in the heavens!

    It's very, _very_ rare to see such a phenomenon this far south!! As I'm originally fromn Scotland, I felt pleased and privilaged to see the magnificent and awesome power of the Universe in motion :)

  • No offense, but have you ever actually seen the Northern Lights? I've had the pleasure a couple of times. It's absolutely beautiful. Seeing it on the Internet is in no way even close to the real thing. The strange sheets of bright light flashing and floating around in the sky are simply amazing.

    Unfortunately it's too bright to see anything from where I live...(downtown Ottawa).

    Cheers,
    Vic



  • Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for your sins


    Sorry I take responsability for my actions sinful or otherwise, no one can take that responsabilty for me.

  • A large solar storm knocking a power grid or
    com-sat is a real problem in this active solar
    year.

  • we are living in the end times, and that all those who believe should begin preparing.

    in the end times, when fun is free
    the lines will be long
    cuz hell's designed
    by walt disney
    a magic kingdom come

    -clang, end times, from pol pot pie
  • We're a few hundred years overdue for a major supernova in our neck of the galaxy. IIRC a supernova wipes out everything within 100LY or so. Apparently there are a few candidates close enough to the Solar System to worry about.

    And then there's that asteroid that supposed to hit us in 2010 or something. Ahh ... what the hell. Just enjoy it while it lasts, right?

  • Ice is less dense than liquid water, but I think the point is that liquid water distributes itself more evenly round the world - thinner icecaps mean the earth is less squashed about the poles, making the earth a slightly less oblate spheroid.

    IIRC, this is responsible for an expansion of about 10m/year.
  • Dude, I know you know this, but obviously you've forgotten. The United States of America is made up entirely of immigrants (except for the small fraction of American Indians still around, sorry guys). It would be impossible for the United States to:

    "...close our doors and just ignore the rest of the world and take care of our own problems..."

    I have relatives in Mexico. I have friends who have relatives in Italy, India, Iran, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, and the list goes on.

    Even if we were to ignore the family issue, isolationism never got any country anywhere. If you look at history, whenever anyone tried it, they ended up lagging behind the rest of the world scientifically and technologically, even if they were ahead when they started. China comes to mind.

    Another problem that springs to mind, OIL!!! If you think people are bitching about the price of gasoline now, just wait until we have to produce it all ourselves! I don't have any idea how high the price would go, but we would all look fondly on the days when it was $2/gallon.

    Whether you like it or not, the US is part of the global economy. We are dependent on it! That's why stability in Europe and the major Asian markets is very important to us, and that's why we get involved in conflicts where it seems we don't belong. It's all about money. The more stable the world is, the more money we can use to buy Japanese electronics, Arabian oil, German cars, and athletic footwear (made in a sweatshop in Malaysia). And, more importantly, we can sell our stuff to them.

    "... message passing as the fundamental operation of the OS is just an excercise in computer science masturbation."

  • Too much light pollution here in CT to see anything.
  • First a slight correction - Finland is now at GMT+3 due to DST (or does UTC have DST?).

    My story of yesterday night:

    Got a phone call from my brother at 22:20 and started looking west, where there was the brightest green lights I have ever seen. We live in the middle of the city Vantaa, but even so they were very bright. At the end we even saw a stripe of red (never seen red before) - though this whole show was just the beginning...

    After about half an hour it started to dim a bit and I left but noticed some lights also in the east - they were going directly overhead from west to east. At that point I went outside (though I was a bit in the flu...).

    Very soon it started to grow spanning the whole visual area and flashing in green and red - it was awesome! That show went on about half an hour and then started to dim a bit.

    I was just leaving when I noticed green light brigten up a bit in the west and stayed a little longer. At just a little after midnight it flared up again for about a quarter of an hour even more brightly than before.

    I watched them a total of 2 hours, though I have heard that they would have flared up again even more brightly at about 3-4 in the morning, but I was fast asleep...

    They were awesome, I never thought they could be so vivid...

    One image has stuck into my mind of it all. At 11.20 the big dipper shining brightly through a veil of bright red...

    Anyway, that was my story. Anybody else want to share some with us?
  • Whoa.. Re-reading my original post I'm suprised I didn't get moderated off completely. :)

    The context I took the original post in was completely wrong and very stupid of me. The post was a combination of an earlier conversation, fatigue and an irritable mood and embarrasing in hindsight. I have nothing against Americans (usually. :) It was just a prior conversation with a rather arrogant American guy about Echelon, encryption export laws and US Government policies that ticked me off.

    Sorry!
  • Yes, there was aurora in the Netherlands. And how! The entire northern part of the sky was at times ablaze with red flares and streaks, the northern horizon shrouded in a gauzy band of greenish light. This was observed from the top of my house on the outskirts of Lelystad. It lasted for something like 45 minutes and was a spectacle to behold. According to the magnetometers the storm is subsiding, so I doubt whether tonight will be as spectacular, but who knows?

    [proudly posting from a fresh mozilla CVS build]
  • Dammit! I ca't see a thing, with all those Iridium satellites in the way... Someone better deorbit them soon!
    ---
  • You wrote: "Anywhere on EARTH where it still matters" is INCLUSIVE rather than EXCULSIVE. We Americans
    may be many things, but so far I don't hear any of us laying claims to the Aurora Borealis (heck, most of us have never seen one). We also apparently don't have a monopoly on arrogance and bigotry."

    Like you say, I was trying to be inclusive. This came in the inbox last evening, and was raised again on IRC -- late last night;) I posted it quickly in the hopes that people on earth -- all of it!=) -- who still had nighttime could go and check it out.

    Then again, I hope the objections were trolls anyhow.

    Cordially,

    timothy

  • G3 (Score:1)

    by tono ( 38883 )
    I can't wait for the G4es to come out! *baboom ching*

  • That's funny, I took offense to the fact that the poster is implying that those of us who live in cities don't matter. Me here in NYC:
    Hey, let's go see the Northern Lights! Oh, damn, I can't see the sky, that's right. Let's try the roof (step, step, climb). Oh, that's better, now let's see, oops, that's a helicopter. There! That's it! No, it's just the Empire State Building inside a cloud. Look, there! No, that's a guy SMOKING Northern Lights in his living room. Oh, what's that couple doing? Yuck, the aliens
    have landed. Time to go.
    So excuse me for not getting off my arse to experience life, but I haven't got $150 (sorry, US$150) for cab fare. Pretty pictures on the net are fine with me.
  • The only thing that I can see is the sun, blue sky, a few puffy clouds. In other words not idea viewing conditions. Mind you it is 10:00 am. (and yes, the story was posted after sunrise here)

    Tonight out into the countryside, and I hope it doesn't get cloudy...I'm at 51.799N, 0.633 E, so I should see it. Fingers crossed. Having tried to watch the solar eclipse during a rainstorm, my luck in these things isn't too good. Still, Zimbabwae 2001 for the next one huzzah! With a free civil war thrown in for the tourists.

  • Actually this happens to me a lot, but I've been advised that if I keep it up, eventually I'll eat the wrong mushroom and Bad Things will happen.

  • Wonder if this is what I saw last night? I'm in Catonsville MD, in the light-polluted suburbs a bit south of Baltimore and around 50 miles north of DC. Around 8:30 or 9 pm EDT (which would be 60-90 minutes after sunset), I noticed a reddish glow overhead. Not knowing about the auroral activity, I guessed that maybe some very high, thin clouds were reflecting the sunset, but I couldn't make out any clouds and but it didn't really seem to line up with where the sun sets around here.

    Looks like this guy [spacew.com] got a better look, around the same time, from a few miles further north and a bit west, away from the city.

    Damn! Wish I'd known what this was, I would have paid more attention to it! Probably the only time I will ever see the northern lights from my backyard.

  • Could this be what's causing Windows to crash? Whatever am I to do.

    Chris Hagar
  • Wake Up from your nice, cumfy beds

    Something tells me you're not asleep in your bed.

    this is kinda late to be stargazing

    Stargazing during the day doesn't work too well. Besides, it's the northern lights, it's not like breaking out a telescope and trying to find a particular star, just look out your window, or *gasp* walk outside.
  • Thats ok I'll wait for the G4...
    --
  • Nice troll, rips [mailto]. I'm only giving it a 7.3, though, because it only contained three misspellings and no profanity. I suspect that "anywhere on Earth where it still matters" refers not to the United States, but parts of the world close enough to the North Pole and still dark. At the time of the posting, that was mostly Canada.

    I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights. That a solar storm brought them far enough south that others who've always wanted to see them could see them makes me happy for them. Unfortunately, I live too far south, in a bright place. Cheers to anyone in Finland that got to enjoy these.

    P.S. Has the Vernal transition happened recently enough that the storm would cause visible Southern Lights as well?

    --

  • D'oh.

    Well, I just drove a few miles and got on top of a hill so i could see a broader portion of the northern sky.. still nothing =(. Bummer. Thanks for the infos though.

  • I am just north of Sacramento, California (don't know the latitude) and I saw absolutely nothing. I was looking at and around polaris.

    Well, I guess I can't say I saw nothing ... did see a "shooting star" ... and the sky looked like it was kinda flickering.. but I am not sure if that was the arora, or an LSD flashback. =)

  • Washington DC is located at 38.8 North

    --
  • Nope, I can promise you that you'll never see a Aurora Australis in Arizona. Reason: Australis are in the southern hemisphere. Arizona isn't (of course, if we take the continental drift into account, then we actually _could_ have a Aurora Australis in Arizona....in a few million years). But, however unlikly it is, you have at least a small minte chance of an Aurora Borielis (sp?) occuring that you can see.


    Grades, Social Life, Sleep....Pick Two.
  • ... everyone Wake Up from your nice, cumfy beds and watch some lights in the sky. I dont want to speak for anyone, but it sounds like a lot of hubub over nothing. We can get the pics from the internet.

    sorry if i sound like a bitter old man, but seriously.... this is kinda late to be stargazing... and plus it's a thursday night.

    just some.. um... random thoughts.

    *************************

  • hey! (Score:1)

    by motardo ( 74082 )
    at least it's not a G4 solar storm :)
    -motardo
  • > of something big about to happen?

    Maybe the breakup of Micro$oft? Btw, did anybody notice that it was New Moon during the verdict... just like Red Hat's IPO. If you want to decide on an investment strategy... just watch the sky.

    • New Moons, solar eclipses, northern light ==> good for Linux and its stocks
    • Full moons, especially those fancy extrabright [slashdot.org] full moons ==> sell your Linux stocks, and especially Corel...
  • Excellent solar page, thank you.

    The sky is clear and darkening blue in Tokyo now, with a little red by the horizon which is sunset. I cannot see the aurora now, but it is a warm evening, and the darkened bulk usually hidden behind the crescent moon is visible with earthshine and perhaps some of the aurora too.

    Cherry blossom time here, and the tree at the top of the hill where I live in Akabane is in full bloom today. Good luck to you.
  • Heh!!! I was a mere stripling of a lad when that was showed; think I watched most of it from behind the sofa!!! :)
    That and any Dr Who episode that had Daleks!!! I thought I was safe upstairs until I saw the one where the Daleks had antigrav boards /shudder/!!!

    Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.

  • Where can I see this phenomenon in Europe? And is it still to happpen or did I miss it already ...
  • G3 Class solar storm... does that mean it cooks Pentiums? ;-)

    Sorry, couldn't resist.
  • Washington DC is at 3852' North, so that's not bad but the Aurora Australis has been seen as far north as Adelaide at 3452' South, ie further from a pole. Just a useless fact.
  • Yeah but Win NT sure as hell did!

    Mike Roberto (roberto@soul.apk.net [mailto]) - AOL IM: MicroBerto
  • Um...

    I assumed that comment referred to light pollution, ie "it still matters" if you're somewhere where it's *worth* looking at the sky, which doesn't strike me as a particularly good example of bigotry, to be honest.

    Maybe I'm just naive, sweet, and innocent though.

    :-)

    -Andy
  • Any chance that us "low" lifes can catch the Aurora Australis? That'd be kinda cool.

    "Watchin' the sky, havin' a Bud..."

  • If you look up and squint really hard, you can almost see Lara Croft! Over there...no, further...can you see her?

    Oh, wait, that was the *last* post...sorry...

  • Ran out looked around gave my eyes 10 minutes to adjust just a nice clear night quite a few stars, I have seen the auroa's from here before once but not tonight.

    Me
  • G3! Guess Steve Jobs is taking all the G4s for himself.
  • Anyone else notice any odd occurances with your electronic gadgets?

    Well, I'm not sure it /. qualifies as a gadget, but I can actually load pages on /. over my cable modem in under a minute, which certainly qualifies as an odd occurance.
  • Well, as of 12:55 AM PST from Burnaby I can see the lights on Grouse mountain, a few stars, a satellite or two, plus a big yellow-orange street light through my north-facing window.
    I can't see any fog though, nor any northern lights.
  • On the other side of the Brooks Range on the Arctic Ocean coast and DIDNT see SHIT last night.

    How disappointing.
    Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design :-)

  • ... I know, but will this be visiable from England this evening, around 11:00pm / 12:00pm, were on British Summer Time now wich is what, like, GMT +/- 1 or something. Dude.

    (Aright I'm joking about a bit, but the question's a real one...)
    Thad

  • The helpful, friendly (and surprisingly awake) man at the nooa hotline says that the storm's over for now, but a new "ejection" just occured. They don't know which way it's headed, but if it is headed for us it'll make earthfall ~April 9-10. Keep your eyes peeled.
  • Isn't a good candidate one of the nearest stars to us as well? (10LY or so?) It must have been about 9 years ago that I studied a star that was pretty close to going supernova, but I cannot remember the name.

    Oh well...
  • Oh I'll prepare all right. I'll get lots of ammunition so I can properly protect myself when the religious zealots try to take away my right to Not Believe in a god that allowed millions of his creations to be killed in his bloody smeggin' name. In this case, I undo others before they can undo me.

  • Yes it's worth shouting about.

    I live in central New Jersey. Around 9pm I was leaving the house to drop my car off at a mechanic and I looked skyward. I saw what looked like a huge pink cloud with moving black streaks. At one point it turned cobalt blue and then copper green. Not to be spooky but I could *feel* a huge rush of energy in my body when it was brightest, which could be fear or joy of course. My neighbor, a chemist, said it was a bloom of smoke, so I dismissed it, but obviously it was the real deal.

    Those of you who see these things regularly, forgive my enthusiasm. It was my first time.

    Dan
    text@dancentury.com

  • My o my, it's a damn long way from the Southern Hemisphere, even when you run !

    Luckily I've got my cellphone connected to my laptop so I can post this !

    Man, this battery back-pack is getting heavy....

  • Auroras are normally limited to the most extreme northerly latitudes [umich.edu]. To have one visible in Washington DC is very unusual. To have one visible in Tuscon would be extreme.

  • Anyone else notice any odd occurances with your electronic gadgets?

    Our NT print server hasn't crashed this morning.
    Does that count?
  • ... everyone Wake Up from your nice, cumfy beds and watch some lights in the sky. I dont want to speak for anyone, but it sounds like a lot of hubub over nothing.

    I agree, what's the point in having a real life, when you can sit on your arse pretending?
  • If you haven't already, then you should give the book a try. It's great.
  • "Och, Captain. We cannea tek the Enterprise thru' a storm as strong as this. It's a damn G3."
  • Hi if anyone is looking for the aurorae in Australia try taking a look to the _South_.
    There was meant to be some great auroral activity this morning but that was in daylight, there a chance there will be a repeat tonight so go outside and take a look.
  • Just to let you know, they were absolutely magnificent. I didn't catch the beginning but even in the light pollution of the city I could see them span through the whole sky. As I walked out they were greenish and had quite fast moving features. Then they began quickly turning to red. After half an hour they begun to dim. The show was mostly over at midnight (+2 UTC).

    The 'center' or 'radiant' (if you can call it that) was not directly overhead but maybe five or ten degrees southwards which would account to 50-55 degrees northern latitude.
  • at the same time

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid _703000/703937.stm

    spooky - could this be sign of something big about to happen?
  • That was a freak meteor show if I recall correctly.

    heh. Bloody good story though and I remember it scaring me at the time - even the BBC series was good. Even now the sight of plants walking around making clacking noises makes me shiver.

    Maybe I should stop taking those drugs

    Troc
  • I was out last night around sunset to see the rare alignment of 4 planetary bodies (and a few satellites) before I returned to work until late, around 10pm the Observatory phone started rining off the hook.... All the public phoning in to report this event.

    And as murphy's law would have it it had got cloudy in the meantime.. Two great events in teh sky and I can only see one of them.

    Still, we have a reasonable chance of seeing some more over the coming year since the Aurora tend to lag behind solar maximum by a year or so.

    Oh well - I hope this year's comet is greeted with better weather.
  • New York City is well north of DC.

    I can honestly assure you that the aurora were not visible within the city. :-)

    Cheers,
    Ben
  • Most of NYC was laid out in a grid in the early 1800's. The result is that for a city of its size you have an amazing amount of light, and very long views N-S and E-W.

    So from the street you can usually see (a bit of) horizon.

    Cheers,
    Ben
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Now THAT is one awesome advertising campaign.
    I must go out and buy a Macintosh, right now!!

    Damn! Check out those graphics. Stellar!!

    Seriously, when I first read the headline, I thought it was a new Mac model. Interesting news anyhow. New England is expecting rain, all weekend. Booo!!
  • Maybe your dog has just been drinking from the fish boal too much, and freaking out the fish. That would explain why he's peeing a lot, as well as the crazy fish.
    Ockham's Razor at its finest.
  • Well, I experienced a very strange thing. M$ Word did not crash today!

    Spooky!
  • ..we all remember how that book started, don't we.

    Don't you know that staring at the lights in the sky makes you blind? Or was that something else ?

    :-)
  • More specifically, 38.92056 Latitude, -77.06575 Longitude, 0 Altitude

    Circumference of earth = 45000km (give or take)
    1 degree of lat/long therefore = 125km
    1/100000 of degree of lat/long = 1.25m^2


    Amazing, all of Washington DC fits in an area of the earth less than 1.25m^2!!Actually, you can't be that specific about the location of Washington DC, which is a big place and can't be defined with such precision (are you using GPS ?). This is one case where less accuracy is better. For cities, coordinates accurate to 2dp (about 1km) are actually a better representation.

    If you've provided the exact coordinates of your living room, my cruise missile will be knocking on your door shortly....

    :-).
  • Useless additional info...

    Oops! Circumference of earth is 40,000km rather than 45,000km, since 1m was orinally defined to be 1/10 000 000 of circumference of the earth in 1790 or so. Believe its measured in terms of speed of light nowadays, but metre hasn't changed much, even if the earth is getting larger due to icecaps melting....

  • In Minneapolis it's unfortunatly overcast... This really bummed me out as the proton levels were some of the highest I've seen in quite awhile. On NASA's Space Weather site [spaceweather.com] they posted an alert. Proton levels were up over 20 per cc when they are usually down in the 1-5 range. The solar wind was also up much higher than normal. As I'm posting this the protons/cc is only 1.2. Not very good for Aurora.
  • Could you actually see a horizon (any horizon)? In the city, probably not :) Oh, well, that's what you get for living in the largest metropolitan area in the country. That and a much better social/cultural scene.

    Alas, NC is just a bit south of DC (but, it's called NORTH Carolina :), so no funky lights for me (not without psychedelic drugs! which, BTW, I don't do)...

    Eric
  • Actually, I remember seeing the Aurora (albeit very, very faintly) outside of Chicago in 1989 or so, during a similar storm. My folks and I had to drive about 8 miles out of town to a forest preserve to get far enough away from the city lights to see it, but, it was there.

    Last night, I hauled ass down to Sabino Canyon and found a good place in the hills where light pollution was very low, layed down on the hood of my car and gave my eyes a good 20 minutes to adjust. No Aurora. :)



    Bowie J. Poag
    Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda [unc.edu])
  • Nothing in the skies above Tucson, as of midnight.

    Bowie J. Poag
    Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda [unc.edu])
  • I'd have to agree. I just ran outside (12:20PM) from Surrey (just a few kilometers to the southeast of wsabstract), and can't see diddley. But it's fairly clear Of course, all of New Westminster, Burnaby, and the mountains are in the way. (We're both just north of the 49 degrees N, and about 124 W on the west end of the continent

    For anyone who CAN see it, how high above the horizon in degrees do you see the aurora?
  • Presumably what the comment means is "anywhere on EARTH where it matters," which if we're talking about the latitude of Washington, DC would most likely (I'm not looking at a map) be Finland, all of Scandinavia, Great Britain and Ireland, Iceland, anywhere in Russia Moscow and north, plus at least the northern areas of Poland, Germany, the Benelux countries, and France. Not, of course, to mention a huge chunk of North America not owned by the United States, namely, all of Canada. In other words, a huge percentage of Slashdot readers (unfortunately not those in Australia or New Zealand), assuming it was night there and the aurora was still active (it's possible both could be the case by the time night falls over Europe tonight).

    In other words, the comment "Anywhere on EARTH where it still matters" is INCLUSIVE rather than EXCULSIVE. We Americans may be many things, but so far I don't hear any of us laying claims to the Aurora Borealis (heck, most of us have never seen one). We also apparently don't have a monopoly on arrogance and bigotry.
    --
  • Having hit the "submit" button on the above, I got to thinking -- presumably this storm would affect the Aurora Australis (sp?) as well. However, I have to wonder if anyone is able to observe it. Presumably it might be visible to New Zealanders, but (again, I'm not looking at a map) most of Australia might be too close to the equator for it to be visible there. Just wondering.
    --
  • From the links above and the pix. from other
    pages it seems to be something right out of
    an old sci-fi or the like! Damned, Im in ohio
    and I looked out a little after midnight...
    did not get crap.. anyone carry your digital
    camera with you ? Would like to see how this
    STRONG (G3) looked like..

    Hmm thinking if Apple may use this as a add
    campaign....


  • I know what you mean. My Garmin GPS told me I was on Venus.
  • And beyond that, has anyone's animals been acting weird lately? This is serious... my dog has been howling a lot, and goes outside to the bathroom a lot more! And then the fish are acting crazy too... don't know what's going on in this house.. maybe this is why

    Mike Roberto (roberto@soul.apk.net [mailto]) - AOL IM: MicroBerto
  • Did you know that that guy at NOOA has two daughters?

    Aurora and Borin Alice

  • Appearently there was aurora here in the Netherlands (52.02N 4.05E) last night, but i didnt see anything ;-(... I did notice the TV signals were a bit weak at times and i got some weird spots and crackles all night on it last night. If my ISP hears from this they'll probably blame their breakdowns on it. "Our newsserver is sucking because of increased solar activity"...
  • Yeah, it's impressive,
    but i still prefer the flying stars one... :p

  • If you can't see it... (Score:4)

    by drdink ( 77 ) <smkelly+slashdot@zombie.org> on Thursday April 06, 2000 @07:56PM (#1146452) Homepage
    If you are interrested in this or you can't see it, this site [mtu.edu] has everything you could ever want to see or know about the Northern Lights.

  • Re:American Biggotry (Score:4)

    by emerson ( 419 ) on Thursday April 06, 2000 @10:40PM (#1146453)
    Um, friend, slow down.

    The VAST bulk of the United States will not be able to see the northern lights, ever, and anyone with a whit of geography under their belt will know that.

    It's pretty clear to me that the 'where it still matters' refers to people waking up and seeing this story while it's still dark in the Deep North or Deep South where this might have a chance of being visible. It has nothing to do with the relative worth of non-United-States nations, and I really can't see how it could be mistaken as such.

    To misuse the metaphor, though, when all you have is an axe to grind, everything starts looking like a tree.

    --

  • Interesting side effects? (Score:4)

    by blackwizard ( 62282 ) on Thursday April 06, 2000 @10:04PM (#1146454)
    We've all heard about how solar flares can potentially kill electrical systems and such down here on earth, disrupt communications, even make our electricity go out... I just thought I'd report some funky occurances tonight..
    • my cell phone locked up on me.. three times
    • my atomic alarm clock can't get a signal; It's currently madly flashing at me in dispair.

    Anyone else notice any odd occurances with your electronic gadgets?

  • Online Solar Activity Monitor (Score:4)

    by SenshiNeko ( 142071 ) on Thursday April 06, 2000 @09:26PM (#1146455)
    For those who are interested, a current solar activity (X-ray flare and geomagnetic storm) monitor is available at Majestic Research [maj.com], which also has html for adding the monitor to your own website as well.

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