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Northern Lights?


Peter_Puget

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I'm praying for the clouds to move out up here so I can get some good slides.

 

The Fairbanks News-Miner newspaper has an aurora forecast in it all the time and UAF has a dept focused on studying the aurora and associated phenomena...worth checking out if you're into that kind of thing.

 

We had a pretty impressive display a few nights ago (a regular occurence in Fairbanks, especially in the winter when there's only a few hours of daylight).

 

My favorite northern light is #5, or maybe #5 x haze, #5 x matanuska is good, as is #5 x blueberry

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Seeing as how this story comes from fox news, we can safely assume:

 

1) Proof the Iraqis were developeing Nucular weapons. After all the sun is a giant fusion reactor.

2) The liberal media is hiding the facts.

3) Yet another reason to expand our militry presence in space.

 

 

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hakioawa said:

Seeing as how this story comes from fox news, we can safely assume:

 

1) Proof the Iraqis were developeing Nucular weapons. After all the sun is a giant fusion reactor.

2) The liberal media is hiding the facts.

3) Yet another reason to expand our militry presence in space.

 

 

 

hahaha.gifhahaha.gifyelrotflmao.gifyelrotflmao.gif

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ChestBeater said:

Distel32 said:

the doja hat.gif

 

Where do you get those gremlins? Is there a webpage of them somewhere?

 

Put your mouse cursor over the graemlin, right click, select "Properties, then copy/paste to your browser. Unless your trying to get ahold of thelawgoddess's graemlins. They're "protected", and she's got the best stash of 'em I've seen.

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mattp said:

catbirdseat said:

If you live in Seattle, it is unlikely you are going to see anything. Better plan a road trip to Yakima.

 

It's looking as if we might be able to see the sky tonight. Cool!

 

Clear as a bell out here in Yakivegas tonight... I'm heading out to the Tieton where it's dark!

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The Squamish .12a? Some friends just did the first four pitches of that thing a few weeks ago. They said the .11c roof was wicked hard, and were pretty spanked by the time they got to the end of Alaska Highway. All they could do was gape at the next two pitches (the second of which is "The Calling"). "The next level" was what one of them said. They couldn't imagine doing the full-on .11d "approach", then the long and strenuous .11d layback, and then another 5 pitches (including the .12a crux at pitch 8)....

 

hellno3d.gif

 

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Here we go again.

 

Top Stories - AP

 

Powerful Geomagnetic Storm Strikes Earth

Wed Oct 29,12:43 PM ET Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!

 

 

By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer

 

DENVER - The most powerful geomagnetic storm possible hit Earth early Wednesday, threatening power outages, disrupting airlines communications and damaging some satellites.

 

Space weather forecasters at a federal laboratory in Boulder said the first pulse of highly charged particles from the sun collided with Earth's magnetic field at 1 a.m. EST, about 12 hours earlier than predicted.

 

The storm is rated a G5, the highest intensity on scientists' scale of space weather.

 

The last time a G5 storm hit Earth was in 1989, researchers said, which damaged the power grid and caused electrical blackouts in Canada's Quebec province.

 

"It is extremely rare to get this level of geomagnetic storming," said Larry Combs, forecaster for the Space Weather Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder. "This is one of the strongest storms that we have received during this cycle."

 

There were few immediate reports of damage related to the geomagnetic storm.

 

However, Combs said, "We know that our power grids are definitely feeling the effects of this."

 

Those charged with monitoring electrical grids are watching "very closely for their triggering devices," he said.

 

He also noted that there had been radio communications disruptions in recent days for airlines, especially those on North Atlantic and polar routes.

 

Another strong storm, although weaker than Wednesday's, occurred last week.

 

The sun generates particle storms in 11-year cycles and storms of this magnitude are rarely seen, scientists said. The current solar cycle peaked nearly three years ago, and such a powerful event occurring on the cycle's downside is especially surprising.

 

In Tokyo, Japan's space agency announced the Kodama communications satellite malfunctioned after being effected by the flare. The agency said it was temporarily shut down and would be reactivated after the storm subsided, but there was no major communication disruption.

 

The G5 storm was spawned early Tuesday by a spectacular eruption from a sunspot blemish on the surface of the sun that sent charged particles hurling toward Earth. The cloud is 13 times larger than Earth and travels at more than 1 million mph.

 

The explosion of gas and charged particles into space from the corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, was the largest observed in 30 years, scientists reported. It isn't harmful to people.

 

In Southern California, wildfires already have knocked out many microwave communication antennas on the ground, making satellite communications important to emergency efforts. Researchers said safety personnel might encounter communications interference.

 

Federal researchers had turned off instruments and taken other precautions with science satellites.

 

A positive note: Strong geomagnetic storms can produce colorful auroras in the night sky visible as far south as Texas and Florida, beginning late Wednesday.

 

Scientists compared the latest flare to the "Bastille Day storm" of July 14, 2000.

 

"The Bastille Day storm produced considerable disruption to both ground and space high-tech systems," said Bill Murtagh, a space weather forecaster for NOAA.

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