Solar flaring, CME's and coronal hole streams
A pop quiz for you all: within your lifetime, how many times have you seen the lights at your location? When was the most intense time? Tassie crew get to see it a bit more often, but interested in what those in the other states have to say.
ooohhh.. the lights were mooch brighter when I were a lad..
the lights in the night sky these days..
they're nay more than a flicker o' an 80s tart's eye-shadow..
@vj, I remember an awesome meteor shower up north in SA in about '94..
but there was a stonker here on the border in.. umm.. maybe 2003..?
any idea what that was?
basesix wrote:ooohhh.. the lights were mooch brighter when I were a lad..
the lights in the night sky these days..
they're nay more than a flicker o' an 80s tart's eye-shadow..
......
There is always one in every crowd, bless.
In answer to your question VJ, I don't recall hearing about them as much in the past. Last year's event (much mentioned in the media/on socials at the time) was the first I can recall actually seeing the light show. Where we live, bayside suburbs of Melbourne, there is a lot of light pollution so even the brightest of these storms are not very visible without the aid of technology. Hard to know if we have missed them simply because we were not aware of them.
For me, I'd always wanted to see Aurora Australis, but figured I'd have to time a mission down to Hobart or Bruny to see a good one. We started looking for them a couple of years ago after I sussed the Kp index could warn of it, and would go up to Southside on the biggest storms - results disappointing.
Then that huge storm came to us last May or so, absolutely incredible. I'd never seen anything like it.
In terms of meteors, we get the Taurid stream and another one each year, I've seen a couple of them but nothing jaw dropping.
Other weird lights:
Did see some ball lightning, 5 or 7 of them moving in formation an hour before the Colac earthquake, from where we are on the coast in the general direction of the quake, that was spun out, never seen anything like that before or since. Not sure if it's an atmospheric, or otherwise, phenomenon. And got struck by lightning with my lads when checking the surf on a headland a couple of years back, that was very spun out. A storm cell was visibly spinning some way offshore, we were nowhere near where I'd expect it to form, just got out of the car standing next to a couple of signs (metal poles) and I reckon it earthed on these.
My question is more about the aurora. It was always something on TV or in a picture book, but now I've seen it move, like cathedrals in the sky with the white lines that were pulsing, just insane stuff.
mm, been pondering your straw poll, maybe as @blackers suggests.. a combo of being young and not caring (or being out and about in a lit city).. or not knowing AS something is happening (I have memories of being disappointed finding out about moon things/meteor-shower things, a week after the fact..)
the only solid memories I have of phenomena (auroras included) comes from either being somewhere like West SA or Tassie by chance, or driving purposely up the river from Adelaide, away from seahaze and lights, with a gang of hoodlums to check a thing out (like I did in '86 with a bunch of my parent's mates, or in '94 as I mentioned..)
but I've felt more alerted to sky stuff the last half-decade.. not having a phone, I guess I'm a pretty solid gauge of what once was, in terms of knowing a thing is happening; I would have had no idea about the current aurora, had my son not yelled out to me before scuttling onto the roof.
what's the stats @vj.. more frequency?
(any end-of-days interpretations I'll only engage with on the Religion thread ; )
Same here VJ. May in 2024 was astounding, and enlightening. First time for me. Over the years I have spoken to other photographers who often set up oceanside down on the ninch to catch the aurora. Too busy with a growing family to be able to join in. As you say it is worth it.
Photos from May 2024.
Yeah, the idea is that it will become more common, because the strength of the magnetic field is weakening (measured by science; magnetic pole movement tracked by science and they are moving fast). We are at a high in a solar 11 year cycle currently (so more storms). What commentators are noticing is that storms that aren't as big (eg Kp 6) are producing auroras further toward the equator, probably because of the weakened field.
I'm like you blackers, that was the first one, otherwise preoccupied with life like you guys and only found ourselves in the middle of some phenomenon, like in '97 or so driving between Gero and Dongara and then a solar eclipse just happened, so we pulled over to observe it. And Yes! Saw the tail of Halleys comet in '86 as a little kid. Everyone went to see it when the TV told you it was there!
I'll spare you the Revelation sun appearing as black sackcloth before the coming of the Son of Man stuff :)
haha, the earth's magnetic field is currently in a weakening phase of its natural cycle, but it will never (in humanoid-earthling terms) collapse, just natural fluctuation, maybe a pole flip in the next dozen or so millennia.. how sick would that be..?
rate of change; old article now
https://www.livescience.com/46694-magnetic-field-weakens.html
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/icon/nasa-researchers-track-slowly-splitti...
a few quick links there, I reckon a lot of the visible 'lines' up into space in the auroras are particle streams following the field lines. That they pulse like sets of waves is just mind blowing to watch, like checking the surf on a galactic scale from your planet's window.
Beautiful, @VJ.
unreal hey? how amazing is it all ..!?
(and how amazing is it we can understand and witness so much of the minutiae and awesome splendour; pity the millennia of ancestors and those who still have the brutal/short horrors in their world, to the point where they couldn't/can't afford to contemplate the beautiful big dark wonder..)
There's also this, too: food for thought
https://theconversation.com/earths-magnetic-field-broke-down-42-000-year...
Love it @VJ. Meet you on the Religion thread.
The thing that spares us from the unutterable world-changing horrors of big-time,
is that big-time is too big for the likes of 'us'. We are but the latest cleverest animal on our world.
(pretty fucking clever, I'll grant you. Not always necessarily the best of traits.
But we're in a magical Earth-stability lull that has allowed it. Go 'us' and our ability to contemplate).
Completely agree, the recent stable is a great stroke of luck and we've been able to build a global civilisation in this time.
Oh, and one further thing: when the latest geomagnetic storm and aurorae occurred, Mt Etna decided to erupt:
velocityjohnno radiation WOTD
Yes we are trying to keep up...where we can of course...each at our own pace.
tbb has a way with cross referencing maps that light up the obvious...
Bible belt = God Fearing People =Tornadoes = Gods Will = A miracle = Grace of God!
Just backtracking to this interactive White Day-Glow Radiation Map...Ok!
Can we pause that & bring it up on the Whiteboard...coz that looks suspicious & it is!
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Swar...
These here White Spots that are lighting up...y'all see that looks like it's meant as a clue!
Take a closer look...they represent a timetable of Lakes heating up...say wot!
Nope...it don't say so...but Yes! These White Hot Spots are Water Bodies...Holy Shit!
They all line up with large water bodies...Ok! We all on the same page now...shh!
Exactly...pays to backtrack if we can pick up a cheat on the get go...advance one level...Yew!
Not so much size but more specifically elevated water bodies irradiate more heat.
Sure...ya get a name for it...( C'mon tbb this is bullshit...Nope...allow tbb to catch up a bit...)
Just hold up crew...You'll see...why we gotta pause for a tick...
LHR = Lake Heat Release
LWup = Lake - Emitted Longwave Radiation
SWup = Lake - Reflected Shortwave Radiation
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12034808/
Now as surfers...we can check the White Ocean Spots.
Ok! tbb thought to check Ocean bathymetry...and he guessed wrong...bummer! (Try again!)
Ocean white Spots correspond to coastal Warm < > Cool Current convergence points.
As wind dies in calm seas creates near shore Fog Banks that emit variable radiation.
By examining the White Spots > they kinda Flow from land into mixed coastal convergence.
It was surprisingly difficult to track this renowned Area of Fog to match these white spots.
But it is a defining weather feature exactly where them spots align...just hard to track!
Where massive Coastal Fog banks form...Southern Eastern South America have names for it.
Mostly in the winter months...this is the best tbb can research on this epic scale weather!
It is pretty detailed...so it was worth tracking down to help explain them coastal hot spots!
https://www.starpath.com/cgi-bin/web_card/courses/glossary.pl?show_def=1....
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169809507002062
The circumpolar current is irradiated by outer Ozone Hole perimeter aligning with Current.
Antarctic current spins faster but not enough to emit radiation by own forces...
But we know the Ozone hole hovers over the Current to heat it just enough to Light up!
Late Spring ramps the UV 50% & possibly heats the seasonal surface phytoplankton.
So not the current but increased UV that lights up polar life force separate to other spots
So we see Central Ozone Hole heating Antarctica > perimeter slowly heating lively current.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1546292/
Recapping we got 3 processes gong on here to light up them white spots
1. Thermal elevated lakes on the land (Check!)
2. Mixing of elevated lakes with Still Coastal Warm < Fog > Cool Currents (Check!)
3. Ozone Hole UV > Hovering the Antarctic Ice < > heating up a lively Current (Check!)
So each white spot is relevant to responding earth heat points...
Meaning the Land points don't change position but change intensity...
The ocean points change with warming - cooling of 'Mixed Temp Current flow Speed"
Polar Regions points change with Aurora < > Ozone Hole position independent of current!
The latter is equally likely to heat seasonal phytoplankton life force more so than current!
Happy to share it all checks out...but only just...gonna need more convincing...tbb knows that!
tbb shared each paper & If there were a paper on whole process...sure...will share that.
It does seem odd that even these separate papers were outliers in their field...kinda weird!
You'd think that massive South America weather deal should boss this Mega radiation emission.
Yet there it is...sitting on the shelf as a massive irradiated weather anomaly in it's own right!
All we need to know is 'each process is long explained' (Above) to orchestrate these radiation points.
Whether it needs one larger name or not...we all know it's several naturally occurring processes!
Figure the forums was the best place for this.. sent in by Swellnet reader John a few weeks ago. It's out of my area of expertise but I'm curious...
"Have you ever considered the link between solar flaring, CME's and coronal hole streams; and the 'turbo-charging' of existing weather systems? Pertinent at present as we have an X Class flare (9.3) inbound, on top of a CME presently affecting us, plus a coronal hole stream... and... that very large hurricane breaking records as it bears down on Cuba/Florida.
The basic premise is that solar particles bombard the earth's upper atmosphere with extra hydrogen ions in solar storm conditions, IIRC energy of this plus H joining with O in upper atmosphere adds to the storm/adds water. As earth's magnetic fields weaken (happening) the chances of solar particles getting through increases. I'd be fascinated to see if these conditions correlated with the stories Swellnet sometimes runs on sub tropical lows intensifying in the southern ocean, or bombing ECLs".