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ANOTHER SOLAR FLARE: Earth-orbiting satellites have just detected an M9-class solar flare from sunspot 1402. The explosion, which peaked at 0359 UT on Jan. 23rd, likely hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. Stay tuned for updates as more data from several spacecraft arrive. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
CME IMPACT: Arriving a little later than expected, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field and briefly exposed satellites in geosynchronous orbit to solar wind plasma. Shifting lines of magnetic force induced strong ground currents in Norway and sparked bright auroras over the upper reaches of North America. This colorful corona appeared over Chatanika, Alaska:
"We enjoyed some amazing displays as the late arriving CME made its presence felt," says photographer Ronn Murray.
The impact also disturbed Earth's ionosphere. In Atlanta, Georgia, radio engineer Pieter Ibelings monitored a 4.5 MHz CODAR (coastal radar) signal as it bounced off layers of ionization along the US east coast. "The moment of impact can be clearly seen on the CODAR radar plot," he points out:
"The CODAR transmitters are located all around the coast and are used for mapping the ocean currents to a distance of about 200 miles," Ibelings explains. "These signals also propagate through the ionosphere so they can be picked up all around the world. The signals are almost perfect for ionospheric sounding since they are linear chirps. I capture the chirp with a receiver locked to GPS both in frequency and time. I then de-chirp the waveform so I can extract the time of arrival information at my location."
The CODAR echoes show ionization layers shifting vertical position by some hundreds of kilometers, changes that surely affected the propagation of HF radio signals in the aftermath of the impact. More information about Ibelings' observations may be found here.
Comments
Maybe Ed Dames and his remote viewers are about to be vindicated........
absolutely, Duane, my first thoughts, just like the temblors are downgraded or worse
, not reported. add a couple of points and they become x class....