Watch the Skies — if You Can!

In case you haven’t heard, the Sun emitted an extremely strong flare and a huge coronal mass ejection our way a couple of days ago.  Here’s what it looked like (left). Currently space weather experts — the folks who track and try to understand solar storms — expect that we should be able to see increased auroral activity even down to the mid-latitudes. This means that folks who don’t normally see the northern and southern lights might have a chance to see them as the material from this outburst slams up against our upper atmosphere (the ionosphere).

Aurorae are just one of the effects of space weather. When a geomagnetic storm spurred by the the Sun’s activity rages around our planet, it can also affect everything from telecommunications to travel. Some years ago, I worked on a project for MIT’s Haystack Observatory that produced a video series explaining about space weather. You can check it out here. The series introduces the concepts of space weather and its effects, and has been used by educators and outreach professionals to talk about our sometimes stormy relationship with our star.

Also, check out my article at About.com going into more detail about this phenomenon. It’s called When Space Weather Attacks!

I’ll be checking my skies for aurorae starting late tonight (Thursday) and over the next couple of nights. If it isn’t storming at your location, do the same. You might be rewarded with a look at what happens when the Sun gets active!

If you do go out stargazing, here’s this month’s Our  Night Skies segment from Astrocast.TV. And, enjoy whatever views you DO get!