Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

< 7:27:04 PM        >

On the creepy side, the Sun seems to be blowing up. Here's SpaceWeather.com:

SUPERFLARE: Giant sunspot 486 unleashed another powerful solar flare on Nov. 4th (1950 UT). Ionizing radiation hit Earth's atmosphere soon after the explosion and caused a severe radio blackout, which radio listeners noticed across North America.

This latest flare from sunspot 486 could be historic. The blast saturated X-ray detectors onboard GOES satellites for 11 minutes. The last time a flare did this, on April 2nd, 2001, it was classified as an X20--the biggest ever recorded at the time. The Nov. 4th, 2003, solar flare appears to have been even stronger. [more]

Sunspot 486 is near the sun's western limb, which means the blast was not directed very much toward Earth. Even so, sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Nov. 5th or 6th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field.

The movie of all this is downright scary.

Anyway, you don't have to wait. It's still the 4th where I sit (in Southern California), and the Aurora is happening right now. You can almost see it from here.

Somebody in Lake Sonoma, California (about 400 miles north of here) just filed a report. Seattle is in there too.

Sitting outside with the kid about an hour ago, we thought we saw a diffuse greenish light to the northeast. Not sure. But it's plausable. Think of the aurora as a curtain of light. Its bottom hangs about 60 miles above the Earth. Its top ranges from 130 to 600 miles high. That means if it runs from Seattle to Green Bay, it will be visible down to Texas.

I think something like that is going on now, and will probably continue over the next two days.

comments < 7:25:43 PM        >

Giant solar flare observed. One of the biggest solar flares ever observed erupted on the Sun Tuesday afternoon, but... [spacetoday.net]
comments < 7:15:43 PM        >

Red Hat sews up Linux for hobbyists. The Linux seller plans to release a version of the open-source operating system for fans on Thursday, part of a move to split its product line to improve profitability. [CNET News.com - Front Door]
comments < 7:14:34 PM        >