Northern Lights: Coronal mass ejection hits Earth's magnetic field, sparks geomagnetic storm

Spaceweather.com
Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:31 UTC

A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on August 3rd at 1740 UT. The impact sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm that lasted nearly 12 hours--time enough for auroras to spread all the way from Europe to North America. Shawn Malone of Marquette, Michigan, photographed this display over Lake Superior:

"The brightness was nice and there were quite a few purple spikes [dancing out of] the green arc below," says Malone. "A 30 second exposure with my Canon 5D Mark II really brought out the colors."

"Woohoo!" exclaims Canadian photographer Olivier Du Tre of Cochrane, Alberta. "I've been dreaming about seeing auroras since I was a boy and last night I finally did. I jumped up and down like a little kid when I saw that green stuff on my camera's LCD screen. They beamed right through the clouds":

With the possible arrival of a second CME on August 4th, tonight might be even better than last night. Imagine that as you browse the gallery:

Quote of the Day

"We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction."

~ US State Department, 1948

- George Kennan

”

Wondering how long the next whistle blower lasts. I'm betting 3 weeks before they're suicided. Of course all of this happens after they publically...

AutomatedMan

Jupiter-Uranus conjunction averts major war in Middle East [Link] #astrology

Javed

I guess it's only the Israeli police that get to shoot at rock throwers.

Baybars

He will die at the hands of a Ukrainian who has lost everything because of him. Nobody hates him more than the Ukrainian people do today.

When I was born, the global population was a hair under 3 Billion, increasing at a rate of 1.7%. [Link] It was the end of an era for North...

Earth Changes

Northern Lights: Coronal mass ejection hits Earth's magnetic field, sparks geomagnetic storm

Reader Comments

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk