A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field around noon Universal Time on Sept. 26th. The impact set the stage for a night to remember. As soon as darkness fell over Scandinavia, auroras filled the sky with such intensity that they were visible through rain clouds. Fredrik Broms photographed the scene from Kvaløya, Norway:
"These were some of the most amazing auroras I have ever seen," says Broms, a longtime observer of the Arctic lights. "The colours were absolutely stunning with purple and deep blood-red in addition to the green. It was a night I will never forget!
BIG SUNSPOT: The source of the CME that hit Earth on Sept. 26th is sunspot AR1302. Measuring more than 150,000 km from end to end, the sprawling active region is visible even without a solar telescope. Here it is among the seagulls at sunset on Sept. 27th:
Damien Vens took the picture from the beach in Koksijde, Belgium. "I used an off-the-shelf Nikon D7000 digital camera," he says. "The sunspot was an easy target." (Note to photographers: Never look at the sun through unfiltered optics such as camera viewfinders; even a low-hanging sun can be blindingly bright.)
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Solar wind
speed: 463.1 km/sec
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C9 1232 UT Sep28
24-hr: C9 1232 UT Sep28
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1300 UT
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Daily Sun: 28 Sep 11
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Sunspot 1302 poses a continued threat for X-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
SOURCE http://spaceweather.com/
