It must be springtime. Last night a gust of solar wind sent auroras rippling down from Canada into the United States. Shawn Malone sends this picture from Marquette, Michigan:
"There was a nice burst of aurora activity right after sunset," says Malone. "The thawing snowbanks in the foreground were not the most scenic, but I had to act quickly to catch the auroras."
The solar wind continues to blow and more geomagnetic storms are possible tonight. Northern (and not-so-northern) sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
Animation of Recent Polar Pass Plots
Northern Hemisphere
Proton Flux plot is GOES-11 dataElectron Flux and GOES Hp plots are GOES-12 and GOES-11 data
The Satellite Environment Plot combines satellite and ground-based data to provide an overview of the current geosynchronous satellite environment. Click on a data panel to open an updating secondary window. An updating Satellite Environment Plot window is also available.
March 11, 2008 -- GOES 11 outages due to spacecraft eclipse season will begin March 12 and continue until April 10. Maximum eclipse duration reached about 65 minutes in the middle of the interval (March 11).
Although these data are of interest to the satellite community, they do not include all parameters and energy ranges known to be associated with satellite anomalies. See related information from the NOAA POES satellite -- Auroral Activity Estimates, Relative Intensities of Energetic Particles, and Solar Protons.
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