hamcam showing green horizon

my northern horizon monitoring camera is showing a green horizon www.davegradwell.com/hamcam.html

Update (2) - expected activity forthis evening

Current NOAA forecasts are for unsettled conditions until about 21:00ut then severe storm levels from 21:00ut until midnight. So hopefully we'll see something on this side of the world later.

Large displays of northern lights have been reported over the US during the morning.

Again stay tuned as this story changes by the hour

long wait 'til sunset

god i hope this doesnt die away, huge magnetic displacements, all of ireland & most of uk should see aurora at this rate www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html

CME update and aurora predictions

When a piece of Sun hits the Earths magnetic field its impact is usually just visible on my magnetometer as a little "nick" in the graph. The size of this impact would suggest a sizable event has taken place and as a result we may be in for a better than "normal" display of aurorae.

These events are notorious to predict and only time will tell what we get. As a guide -

The K value on the top of the graph: values of 5 mean a good display for the north of the country and values of 6 and above mean northern lights for most of Ireland.

The graph: Watch the red graph, displacements of 70nt (1.5 boxes) are needed for displays over most of Ireland.

and of course stay tuned to Surfing the Sun

Impact!

Our long awaited CME has just impacted our magnetic field (about 0600UT)  lets hope that by this evening we will have a good display of aurora.

The impact (called a sudden impulse) is clearly visible on my magnetometer www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html

Stay tuned
Dave Gradwell

cme update

latest info suggests the cme will impact around midnight on the 17th. keep monitoring the magnetometer for live data www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html

Green skies for St Patricks's weekend?

displays of the northern lights are expected over the weekend. a coronal mass ejection (a piece of sun hurled into space) is due to impact earth Saturday evening sparking aurorae. as usual watch my magnetometer page www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html to see when it hits. alerts will be given here and on my Facebook page. stay tuned....

A solar starfish and some big spots

Just like a starfish, sunspot AR11690, has grown back on of its arms. The filament on the left collapsed yesterday producing a C2 flare and coronal mass ejection, but today it's grown back. Also today some bigg spots are turning onto the disc from the east. Click on each image to see a more detailed view.

Dave Gradwell

Solar activity and a filament collapse

The top image shows the collapse of a magnetic filament that occurred today. You can see that the left hand "snake" has disappeared by 11:07 and replaced by bright areas of flaring (a C2 size). Also on the Sun today were a few nice prominences. Seeing wasn't great but it was nice to be out imaging again.

CME - Moment of impact

The graph below shows the moment when a piece of the Sun hit the Earth earlier today. Picked up by my magnetometer, it shows how the Earths magnetic field shook from the impact. This called a sudden impulse. On my live data page www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html it appears as a tiny "nick" at about 17:30UT.  This may signify some aurora later.

Dave Gradwell

Low level aurora visible

Earth is entering a medium speed solar wind which has sparked off auroral display across northern Europe. At present northern lights have been seen as far south as the north coast of Ireland. Keep checking my magnetometer www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html and my new HAMCam www.davegradwell.com/hamcam.html for signs of aurora.

Dave Gradwell

Introducing HAMCam

A project I'm calling High Atmosphere Monitoring Camera. This will monitor the northern
horizon 24 hrs a day. It uses sebectecs neat webcam software that among other things
knows when to change to nighttime long exposures. The camera will monitor for aurora and noctillucent
cloud during the night and will be a weather cam during the day. Tests are still ongoing and it's final positioning has yet to be decided so it will be "on and off" over the next few weeks. www.davegradwell.com/hamcam.html

DaveG

Welcome to 2013 - M1.7 flare

The Sun belatedly welcomed in the new year with some fireworks of its own. A large M1.7 flare was released today at 09:30 UT and was picked up by my solar flare monitor. Hopefully this will be a sign of increased activity. The Sun has been extremely quiet of late prompting some solar astronomers to say that solar maximum has already peaked.

Dave Gradwell

An even bigger flare today

Sunspot 1618 has really brought the Sun to life. Today it unleashed a large M3.5 solar flare, bigger than either of yesterdays flares. There is a slim hope that this spot may yet unleash an X sized eruption. Any CMEs ejected from these flares may result in displays of the Northern Lights....... stay tuned. Data below from my solar flare monitor, daytime live data at www.davegradwell.com/solarflares.html

Dave Gradwell

Exciting solar day

A bit of a lull was broken today by solar flares, and a surprise nudge from the solar wind.
2 Large spots have developed rapidly over the last few days, AR1618 unleashed 2 large M class flares. Luckily enough the first was on the daylight side as seen from Birr and my solar flare monitor picked it up. Then this evening the solar wind gave us a surprise nudge that sparked aurorae. This was out of the blue and just goes to show how unpredictable space weather is. You can see from my magnetogram that activity started about 6 and finished about 9. I wonder will we see "Gradwell's Gap". I have noticed that the best activity seems to occur after a gap of many hours after first impact. So maybe tomorrow evening we'll get to see a better display.

Dave Gradwell

CME impact

A coronal mass ejection impacted Earth what looks like 20:52 on Nov 12th. This was when my magnetometer picked up its first large displacement. Magnetic activity continues as I type (1:40am on the 13th), so check for low level auroral displays. The graph shows my data and the impact.

Dave Gradwell

Small CME impact

Earth received a "gentle tap" this afternoon when a piece of Sun glanced off our magnetic field. While probably not strong enough to cause low latitude aurorae, the CME impact was picked up by my magnetometer. Below is a snapshot from my x axis sensor with the impact clearly visible. Remember live data can be seen at www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html

Dave Gradwell

Big M9 solar flare

The Sun unleashed one of the biggest flares of the year this evening. An M9 class flare (next size up is the biggest type - X) erupted off the SE edge of the solar disc. It was large enough to break through the post sunset ionosphere here in Birr and disrupt the VLF radio signal from Cutler, Maine. These size flares are rare and maybe a sign of an active sunspot turning to face Earth. Below is a plot from my solar flare monitor. Live data (during daytime hours) is available at www.davegradwell.com/solarflares.html

Dave Gradwell

More Aurora images

Heres some more shots from that nice display earlier in the week

Click on them to see a bigger scale. Theyre also availible from my website www.davegradwell.com/images.html. These are featured on a bbc online story about this display


Dave Gradwell

Activity subsides

After the excitement of the night geomagnetic activity is on the wane. You can see how the Earth's magnetic field shook well into the early hours as picked up by my magnetometer

Dave Gradwell