Aurora Watch In Effect As Severe Solar Storm Slams Into Earth

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: Thanks to a giant eruption on the Sun and a large opening in its atmosphere, we're currently experiencing G4 conditions -- a severe geomagnetic storm strong enough to disrupt power grids as energy from space weather disturbances drives electric currents through Earth's magnetic field and the ground. Experts say the storm could even reach G5 levels, the extreme category responsible for the spectacular auroral activity seen in May 2024. In fact, space weather bureaus around the world are forecasting powerful aurora conditions, with some suggesting aurora could be visible at unusually low latitudes, potentially rivaling the reach of 2024's historic superstorm. A livestream of the Northern Lights is available on YouTube. The Aurora forecast is available here.

It's called Oracle now

[ebunga]

So welcome to the Oracular system. That will be $75,000,000,000,000 per planet and you must license every planet and asteroid in your system or face their lawyers.

Re:

[chas.williams]

Hey, a PowerPC joke. I miss those CPUs.

That's why my microwave was sparking

[thesjaakspoiler]

All kinds of sparks flying around the door and inside.

Re:

[Fly Swatter]

I am sure it had nothing to do with the spoon you left in the bowl.

don't miss this...

[rocket rancher]

oblig XKCD [xkcd.com]

NOAA says we’ve hit G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm levels, with a G4 watch still in play, plus an S4 (Severe) radiation storm riding along for the fun parts of physics that don’t care about our weekend plans.

I’ve been lucky enough to catch the aurora a handful of times in my sixty-four years on the planet, mostly back in my Reagan-era Air Force days. The one that branded itself into my brain was San Francisco: sitting in lawn chairs on the roof of my friend Joe’s place in the Marina, six stories up, watching ribbons and waterfall-cascades of light over the Golden Gate like the sky had decided to show off for the bay.

If you’ve never seen an auroral display in it's full glory, put it on your bucket list...let the universe remind you it has an art department.

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[Skjellifetti2]

Saw the aurora one time during a Grateful Dead concert at Alpine Valley, WI. I was pretty sure that what I was seeing was a side effect of the, um, well, general atmosphere shall we say. But I took a picture anyway. I was pleasantly surprised when I developed the photo and realized what it was.

Yes, put the aurora on your bucket list even if you can't match it with a Dead show these days.

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[sysrammer]

When on YT looking into cruises to Alaska, one video reminded me that most of the time teh auroras aren't that interesting, so when I clicked to the livestream I wasn't expecting much but was amazed by all the action. I'll see about booking a cruise during the next scheduled G4 event.

I find XKCD's graphs to be informative and easy to parse, and this one gives a good representation of the reality of observing auroras.

OT: My favorite, where he illustrates how companies would make a fortune if crazy phenomena

Re:Solar Storm Hyperbole

[gtall]

There you have it folks, this guy knows all about solar storms and stuff, and the physicists and atmospheric sciences folk know nothing. Maybe he could talk to them and get them to understand those nasty effects won't happen on Earth. I'm sure they'd listen to him.

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[chas.williams]

Because it's yet another thing the news media can hype up and "warn" us about. There's absolutely nothing you, as an individual, can do about it.

Re: Solar Storm Hyperbole

[Kelxin]

Ah, you must have exhaustively studied the last Carrington even then? Because nothing happened from that, right? No wires catching on fire, or simple batteries exploding or anything.

Re:

[Fly Swatter]

Back then there were no overload protections. We have those now. grounding is now a requirement for a reason. The batteries most likely exploded from surge current from the ungrounded lines. This isn't the 1800's. We even have fuses now. For the most part it is hyperbole today.

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[doesnothingwell]

Solar storms are a non-issue, on Earth. Never were an issue, never will be.

I would say this is a troll, no functioning brain could reach this conclusion. I would normally say you don't get this much stupid in a live human, but politics of late is proving me wrong. One upping the usual media hyperbole doesn't make your hype true.

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[ArchieBunker]

Clearly, the worlds scientists are wrong and you are correct. Bravo for standing up to Big Science.

Live cam is down

[SouthSeb]

The link provided is from a camera that doesn't work. You can watch it from Iceland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Bummer, missed it.

[Mspangler]

We are socked in solid under an inversion layer. It's been like this for a week now. 3000 MW of wind and solar producing nothing. That's the green line at the bottom of the graph.

https://transmission.bpa.gov/b... [bpa.gov]

I keep missing it

[dargaud]

I've been to places that have plenty of auroras (Alaska, Antarctica, Scandinavia, NZ, etc...), but either at the wrong time of year, during solar minima, or smack in the center of the auroral circle (where there's nothing to see).
Is there an email alert I can set up for my location for when they *really* happen (based on nearby webcams), not just when some vague model gives a 10% probability ?

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[antdude]

In iPhones and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/... [apple.com]