'Solar tsunami' sends Northern Lights our way
EUGENE, Ore. - A "solar tsunami" sent energy surging toward earth from the surface of the sun on Sunday.
As the wave of energy washes over the Earth, the Pacific Northwest is primed for a rare chance Tuesday night to see auroras, commonly known as the Northern Lights.
A key measure of solar activity shows a spike sufficient for auroras to be visible in the Pacific Northwest. The "coronal mass ejections" from the sun are hitting the Earth's atmosphere and striking the right kind of tune for the Northern Lights to dance.
"It could be visible almost all the way down to California at this state," said Jim Todd, the planetarium manager at OMSI in Portland. "Anytime we get a red bar like that, it's definitely worth trying."
Todd said your best best is to get away from city lights and look north around 10 or 11.
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The blast of solar energy has excited astronomers and solar physicists. | See a photo taken by a space observatory | File photos of the Northern Lights
"On August 1, the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity," NASA reported. "There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more."
In addition to city lights, the sky could disrupt viewing. Todd recommend a digital camera on a tripod to take 3 to 5 second exposures towards the northern horizon. If the picture shows some shades of green to red curtain-like images, chances are the auroras are active.
With a clear sky in the forecast, take a step outside and taking a look.
While you're at it, an alignment of three planets known as the Celestial Triangle remains visible just after dark.
From NASA
On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was Earth-facing sunspot 1092. C-class solar flares are small (when compared to X and M-class flares) and usually have few noticeable consequences here on Earth besides aurorae. This one has spawned a coronal mass ejection heading in Earth's direction.
Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are large clouds of charged particles that are ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours and can carry up to ten billion tons (1016 grams) of plasma. They expand away from the Sun at speeds as high as a million miles an hour. A CME can make the 93-million-mile journey to Earth in just three to four days.
When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet’s magnetic field, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm. Solar particles stream down the field lines toward Earth’s poles and collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, resulting in spectacular auroral displays. On the evening of August 3rd/4th, skywatchers in the northern U.S. and other countries should look toward the north for the rippling dancing “curtains” of green and red light.
The Sun goes through a regular activity cycle about 11 years long. The last solar maximum occurred in 2001 and its recent extreme solar minimum was particularly weak and long lasting. These kinds of eruptions are one of the first signs that the Sun is waking up and heading toward another solar maximum expected in the 2013 time frame.