Northern Lights - May 11th, 2024

[Blast]

Heads up (literally) to those in northern and even central USA. There's a very good chance on May 11th you'll see the Northern Lights due to Earth being hit by a series of large coronal mass ejections. They are expected to cause assorted issues with radio communications and some induced voltage in long conductors (wire, railroad tracks, and pipelines) but not at the level of a Carrington event.
Go to https://spaceweather.com/ for details.
-Blast

[majorhavoc]

You beat me to it, except I was going to post as a heads up about potential disruptions to GPS and telecommunications.  And to the power grid. 

These events never seem to amount to much, at least in a way that has ever affected me personally.  But I'm open to the possibility it might have a greater impact someday.  I don't ever wish for disasters, but a part of me wonders if a short, low level disruption might raise awareness and motivate people (myself included) to take the risk more seriously. 

[flybynight]

Yea Sunspots 

[TACAIR]

The last 'minor' CME that hit Earth generated a Kp 7 level storm.  Yeah.

Now that we are up to **6** CMEs in train, I suspect even those on the Gulf Coast will enjoy the light show.

I'm not worried about power outages here in AK, the utilities have hardened everything for 'eddy currents' long ago.   If you live someplace with bad or poor maintenance of the grid, you can expect trouble.

I'm looking forward to seeing how well 40M and 80M fare - I meet with a net on both in the evenings.  

For fun graphics, see -   Homepage | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

for the coming light show -  Homepage | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

[EBuff75]

I looked outside a few minutes ago, but nothing visible from my house in the Detroit suburbs at the time.  I'll check again a little later to see if there's any change.  Right now there isn't much cloud cover, so if they're visible through the light pollution, and they're currently showing up this far south, then I should be able to see them.

[EBuff75]

It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th time that I went out this evening that I was finally able to see anything.  It's pretty faint to the naked eye, but showed up nicely in the pictures.  Here's what I could see in the Detroit suburbs:

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ETA: My feed on Facebook is just flooded with pictures right now.  So cool!

[TACAIR]

HF be all but dead.
D Region Absorption Predictions (D-RAP) | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center
(cannot post a screenshot, so use link) 

Aurora display seen plainly in Alabama.  Won't be over till Sunday - maybe.

This is faction of what was postulated in my book Sunburn.

[Anianna]

Our news said it could come this far south, but it's pretty overcast.  I have seen anything yet. 

[flybynight]

 Yea not optimum viewing conditions here also. Maybe a light red tinge to the north about midnight last night. Of course now the sun is already brightening the sky

[Raptor]

In southern MS they were to some extent visible. Nothing like what you see at northern latitudes  but still visible. People are posting pictures on social media.

This is near my farm but it is also an extended exposure and likely some photo shop, so the reality is a bit different.

Now What is interesting? Is that I noticed my GPS receiver is showing an error of between 20 to 30 feet when normally it shows 15 to 25 feet. Not exactly the TEOTWAWKI but still interesting.

[Lambykins]

They were amazing up here!

[flybynight]

Yea we had poor seeing conditions . clouds and misty about a hundred feet up. Supposed to storm every night til Wednesday. I used to  more actively do  amateur astronomy. So I'm used to missing out on astronomical events due to poor weather conditions.