Hello All!   
      
   A Taste of Solar Maximum    
      
   July 20, 2012:  Forecasters say Solar Max is due in the year 2013.  When it   
   arrives, the peak of 11-year sunspot cycle will bring more solar flares, more   
   coronal mass ejections, more geomagnetic storms and more auroras than we have   
   experienced in quite some time.   
      
   On the weekend of July 14, 2012, sky watchers around the world got a taste of   
   things to come.   
      
   It was mid-Saturday in North America when a coronal mass ejection or "CME"   
   crashed into Earth's magnetic field and triggered the most sustained display   
   of auroras in years.  For more than 36 hours, magnetic storms circled Earth's   
   poles.  Northern Lights spilled across the Canadian border into the United   
   States as far south as California, Colorado, Kansas, and Arkansas.  In the   
   southern hemisphere, skies turned red over Tasmania and New Zealand, while the   
   aurora australis pirouetted around the South Pole.    
      
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VVYb-snvJ8   
      
   A new ScienceCast video takes you on a trip around the world to witness the   
   geomagnetic storm of July 14-16, 2012. Play it   
      
   The source of the CME was giant sunspot AR1520, a seething nest of tangled   
   magnetism more than 15 times wider than Earth itself.  On July 12th, the   
   sunspot's magnetic field erupted, producing an X-class solar flare and hurling   
   a billion tons of electrified plasma toward our planet.     
      
   NASA's twin STEREO probes and the European Space Agency's Solar and   
   Heliospheric Observatory monitored the CME as it billowed away from the sun.   
   Using those data, analysts at NOAA and NASA successfully predicted the cloud's   
   arrival time. It would take almost two full days for the CME to cross the 93   
   million mile void between Earth and sun.    
      
   The CME's impact sharply compressed Earth's magnetosphere, briefly exposing   
   geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma.  The shaking of Earth's   
   magnetic field caused compass needles to swing--just a little--and prompted   
   electrical currents to flow through the soil at high latitudes.  Fortunately,   
   the strike did no harm; satellites survived and power grids stayed online.    
      
   http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2012/07/20/cmetrack.gif   
      
   An experimental NASA computer model of the incoming CME predicted its arrival   
   at Earth on July 14th. Credit: Goddard Space Weather Lab. animationNext came   
   the light show.  As the CME's wake washed across Earth, the polar regions of   
   our planet lit up like a Christmas tree.  Red, green, blue and purple auroras   
   capped both ends of the planet, glowing, dancing, and ultimately spreading to   
   places where auroras are seldom seen.   
      
   In Arkansas, for instance, "there was a faint glow off and on for most of the   
   night," reports Brad Emfinger from a little town called Ozark. "Around 3am   
   there was an outburst of red and purple plainly visible to the naked eye."   
   [photo]   
      
   In Pawnee Grasslands, Colorado, photographer Robert Arn saw the Northern   
   Lights for the first time ever: "As soon as I stepped out of the car, the sky   
   looked like it was on fire. Then the Moon, Venus and Jupiter rose together in   
   the east. To see the conjunction and the auroras side-by-side was incredible!"   
   [photo]   
      
   Meanwhile at the other end of the planet, "auroras were going crazy over the   
   South Pole," reports Robert Schwarz at the Amundsen-Scott south pole research   
   station "We enjoyed the show under crystal clear skies with an air temperature   
   of minus 105 degrees F." [photo]   
      
   In Ashland, Wisconsin, on the other hand, John Welling watched the show in his   
   shirt sleeves: "Tonight was absolutely the best with a comfortable temperature   
   of +78 degrees F and Northern Lights dancing overhead. The X-flare definitely   
   lived up to the hype." [photo]   
      
   From one end of the planet to the other, spanning more than 90 degrees of   
   combined north-south latitude, 183 degrees of temperature, and 360 degrees of   
   longitude, this was truly a global space weather event.    
      
   And it was just a taste of things to come.    
      
   Stay tuned to Science@NASA for more news about the sun-Earth connection.      
      
      
   Author: Dr. Tony Phillips| Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit:   
   Science@NASA   
      
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LA - (1:3828/7)