A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that erupted from NOAA Active Region 1302 on Saturday September 24 in conjunction with an M7 strength solar flare, arrived Friday morning morning at 1237 UT (8:37am Eastern Time). It has kicked off moderate (G2) geomagnetic storms for low latitudes, but high latitudes are seeing severe (G4) levels of activity. Aurora watchers in Asia and Europe are most favorably positioned for this event, though it may persist long enough for viewers in North America. The bulk of the CME missed the Earth, meaning the storm intensity and duration are less than what they would have been in the case of a direct hit. Region 1302 remains capable of producing more activity and will be in a favorable position for that activity to have impacts on Earth for the next 3-5 days.
The current solar cycle should peak in 2013.
Active Region 1302 is a huge sunspot group that is about 60,000 miles wide. the diameter of the earth at the equator is just under 8,000 miles.
Many beautiful pictures of aurora borealis are captured at Yellowknife.
Yellowknife (2006 population: 18,700) is the capital and largest city of the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. Yellowknife is located on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, approximately 250 miles south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River. Yellowknife and its surrounding water bodies were named after a local Dene tribe once known as the ‘Copper Indians’ or ‘Yellowknife Indians’ (now referred to locally as the Yellowknives Dene First Nation) who traded tools made from copper deposits near the Arctic Coast.
Become a fan of The Cardinal weather page. Submit your pictures or just stay up-to-date on weather topics — go direct to the Arlington Cardinal Weather photos. For a list of all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages, go to Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …