~Space Weather Update~ Grand Filament Growing~ wind Speed 433~ [1]

 

AURORAS OVER THE USA: A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field during the waning hours of Saturday, Feb. 18th. Although the stream was expected, the bright auroras it produced were not. Northern Lights spilled across the Canadian border into several US states including Wisconsin [2], Michigan [3], North Dakota [4], and Minnesota [5]:

 

[5]

Travis Novitsky took this picture from Grand Portage, MN. "Last night, my girlfriend and I were just settling in to watch a movie when the auroras made a surprise appearance," he says. "A quick look out the back door of my house revealed that, yes indeed, the lights were out! We jumped in the truck and drove a few miles inland from Lake Superior. For the next hour and a half we were treated to a green glow peppered with dancing curtains of green, purple and red. It was a spectacular night."

 

In Fairbanks, Alaska, "the auroras were so bright [6] they drew a crowd on my street," reports Brandon Lovett. At the Poker Flats Research Range outside of Fairbanks, researchers launched a suborbital rocket to investigate how auroras affect GPS systems. Lovett could see the rocket soaring into the heavens [7] from more than 20 miles away.

This episode might have been amplified by the action of a co-rotating interaction region or "CIR." CIRs are transition zones between fast and slow solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking auroras. Local solar wind data suggest that Earth moved through a CIR around 1500 UT on Feb. 18th. Aurora alerts: text [8], voice [9].

 

more images: from Dirk S.Miller [10] of Rice Lake, Wisconsin; from Shawn Malone [11] of Marquette, Michigan; from Matthew Moses [12] of Solway Township, MN; from Brian Larmay [2] of Beecher, Wisconsin; from Shawn Johnston [4] of Fargo, North Dakota; from Aaron Peterson [3] of AuTrain, Michigan; from Bryan Hansel [13] of Grand Marais, MN; from Randy Halverson [14] of Madison, Wisconsin; from Rob Harrington [15] of McBain, MI

 

 

 

 

Solar wind
speed: 433.4 km/sec
density: 1.5 protons/cm³
explanation [16] | more data [17]
Updated: Today at 1526 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B6 0901 UT Feb19
24-hr: C1 0851 UT Feb19
explanation [18] | more data [19]
Updated: Today at: 1500 UT

Daily Sun: 19 Feb 12

[20]

A new sunspot is rapidly growing at the circled location. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 63
What is the sunspot number? [21]
Updated 18 Feb 2012

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
Updated 18 Feb 2012

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 104 sfu
explanation [22] | more data [23]
Updated 18 Feb 2012

Current Auroral Oval: