Solar Storm

[ORAC]

https://news.sky.com/story/geomagnetic-storm-warning-as-solar-flare-expected-to-directly-hit-earth-today-12431243

Geomagnetic storm warning as solar flare expected to directly hit Earth today

An alert was published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which warned the geomagnetic storm could cause power grid fluctuations with voltage alarms at higher latitudes, where the Earth is more exposed.

[Lantern10]

Did anything significant happen?

[averow]

I will be curious to see if pilots flying routes far to the North (across Greenland, Northern Canada etc) witness an uptick in visible aurorae tonight , October 11th
2021 when most of this extra activity is supposed to happen.

[wiggy]

I’m wouldn’t really expect an “uptick” on the far north routes since in my experience see aurora of some sort probably 30% or 40% of the time on those routes, even when the alert sites aren’t promulgating anything significant, however anything seen would have probably been a more impressive display than the norm.

There may have been an “uptick” in sightings from more southerly routes ( e.g. those crossing the Martimes heading out towards the Atlantic tracks) since the CME did produce a fairly significant display as seen from ground level across southern Canada and the Northern US,

On that point/to answer Lantern10’s question:

From the spaceweather.com website this morning:

https://www.spaceweather.com/


FWIW I’m on a e-Mail alert/info list with a UK aurora observing group and there were no alerts last night for anything significant seen from the UK,I’ve not seen any updates from the group this AM, so it sounds like a significant display but not the power surge/power blanket level producing display that was being warned of in some outlets.

Reason is these days it is relatively straightforward and easy to see Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) blasting away from the sun, it’s still very difficult to predict how they will react with the Earth’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere once the products of the CME actually get here

.https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-to-improve-space-weather-forecasting

[Fly3]

I flew the polar routes for quite a few years and witnessed many spectacular sights of the aurorae. We always received a space met brief along with the usual met and if it was forecast that it would be above R2 and/or G2 the we re-routed to avoid flying over the pole.

[Fewdoom]

Brilliant light show this morning across Northern Minnesota, didn’t notice or hear of any disruptions.

[Intrance]

Got some fairly strong northern lights last night a bit further south than I'm used to. Happens from time to time but not very often. I've also flown a lot at a bit more nothern latitudes, above the arctic circle and such. Used to seeing them a fair bit there but they normally start around N62/N63. Started as a large aurora oval coming down close to Stockholm latitude and got more active an hour later. But no disturbances, just a good show.