SDO ECLIPSE SEASON: Twice every year, around the time of the equinoxes, Earth can pass directly between the Sun and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), producing a series of beautiful eclipses from the point of view of the spacecraft. SDO's autumnal eclipse season began yesterday, Sept. 6th, with a partial blackout of the sun:

During the eclipse, which was centered around 0700 UT, Earth covered about half of the sun. Because these eclipses typically last only a few minutes, there is still plenty of time remaining in the day for SDO to monitor activity on the sun. The observatory won't miss much even with Earth occasionally getting in the way. The ongoing eclipse season will end on Sept. 26th. Between now and then, stay tuned for some rare blackouts.

MAGNETIC UNREST: Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from a pair of CME impacts--a relatively strong blow on Sept 3rd followed by a lesser hit on Sept. 4th. The double strike ignited auroras around the Arctic Circle that are only slowly fading. Olivier Du Tré photographed this apparition over Red Deer, Alberta, on Sept. 5th:

Perhaps this is related to the CME energies bathing the planet now?

Photo courtesy of CNN

 

Costa Rica Earthquake 2012 Today Felt in San Jose

Massive earthquake occurred off the coast of Hojancha, Coasta Rica on September 5, 2012.

A M7.9 earthquake just occurred below the coastal area of Costa Rica.

This earthquake can be called extremely dangerous for everybody living in a radius of 40 km around the epicenter.

The earthquake occurred on top of the North American plate which is subdected by an oceanic plate. Powerful earthquakes in the area are mostly very deep and less dangerous.

Tsunami Warning:

THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS ISSUED AN EXPANDING REGIONAL TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH FOR PARTS OF THE PACIFIC LOCATED CLOSER TO THE EARTHQUAKE. AN EVALUATION OF THE PACIFIC WIDE TSUNAMI THREAT IS UNDERWAY AND THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT HAWAII COULD BE ELEVATED TO A WATCH OR WARNING STATUS.

IF TSUNAMI WAVES IMPACT HAWAII THEIR ESTIMATED EARLIEST ARRIVAL

TIME IS 0243 PM HST WED 05 SEP 2012

We will have to wait until recalculated numbers are coming in.

Real Time Earthquake Map

View Location in Google Maps

Source + Source

Thank You to Biggerpicture2012

Residents and tourists warned about increased activity at Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano

Extreme weather can cause coastal rivers such as the Mississippi (to the left) to reverse their flow

The storm surge ahead of Hurricane Isaac made the Mississippi River run backwards for 24 hours.

Arctic ice is in a death spiral and the implications are enormous

 | AUGUST 30, 2012

 

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 I'm sharing my space this week with climatologist Paul Beckwith because an enormous cyclone blew over the North Pole all this month -- an event that has kept scientists around the world up at night.

It’s very rare for there to be such a storm in the summer. In the past a storm like this would arise in winter and blow snow around on top of a thick ice cover. This summer, over thinner ice, the wind creates large waves which, combined with warm temperatures of air and water, are causing havoc with a keystone of the global climate.

Arctic ice physically reflects most of the incoming solar radiation harmlessly back into space, keeping the surface temperatures cold. When water replaces the melting ice it absorbs much, much more sunlight and thus increasingly heats up the ocean and atmosphere. This extra heat melts even more ice in a vicious heat amplifying feedback cycle.

No computer models predicted this and the implications of ice loss are enormous.