wiredfool

Big Solar Flare today

There was an extremely large solar flare this morning, apparently the third largest in the last 20 years or so, pointed directly at the earth. There are forcasts for severe geomagnetic storms, which from my reading would tend to indicate that auroras might be visible in the Seattle area and points southward starting around midnight PST. It’s a little unclear if it’s really going to happen, as recent notable but much less sever flares have resulted in no activity. (even for locals in dark skies).

Some links:

From what I can gather, Seattle should see aurora activity if the Kp value gets above 7 or so, and it’s hovering around a 5 with 8 hours to go before the main mass is supposed to hit round midnight. And I’m not sure that observer satellites are staying up through the storm because of potential damage.

So. Is it worth staying up till midnightish and trying to find a dark spot?
This article says 30 hours from flare to aurora, which puts it tomorrow.

***Update
I decided to go to bed, with ~20% cloud cover from my Seattle neighborhood location. Looking at the data this morning, Kp went to 9 right around midnight local time, which means that we probably had visible aurora while I was asleep. Oh well.

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