Weekly Photo Theme Recent Northern Lights

[Shawn]

Show me your recent Northern Lights photos!

Here's mine from last night!

 

[krJoest]

West side of Evansville

 

[Shawn]

I've noticed we've been seeing them a lot around here these past few years. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing.

 

[krJoest]

I've noticed we've been seeing them a lot around here these past few years. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing.

I read we're at solar maximum right now, and we've gotten better at detecting solar storms. There's also all that chemtrail talk.

 

[Shawn]

I read we're at solar maximum right now, and we've gotten better at detecting solar storms. There's also all that chemtrail talk.

The chemtrail talk is so strange.

But is it?

Who knows anymore...

 

[Jeff Ulrich]

I was headed to work night of Veterans Day and saw the auroras. I wasn't expecting it and hadn't previously seen anything about it. At first I thought it was a big fire, but as I kept driving I realized what it was.

Yes, it was a sign the Earth's magnetic field was actively shielding us from incoming charged particles from the sun during a particularly intense period of solar activity.

Scientists do have a better understanding and ability to predict solar storms and the cycles they follow. That's a good thing since so much we depend on from our power grid, communications, and electronics can all be affected.

During the Carrington Event in 1859, the intensity of solar activity was so strong that the resulting geomagnetic storm induced electric currents in telegraph wires that caused arcing, electric shocks to opertors, and even fires. An event like that today would cause widespread damage and disruption to the electric power grid and damage electronics. It would be nice to have some warning.

 

[Shawn]

I was headed to work night of Veterans Day and saw the auroras. I wasn't expecting it and hadn't previously seen anything about it. At first I thought it was a big fire, but as I kept driving I realized what it was.

Yes, it was a sign the Earth's magnetic field was actively shielding us from incoming charged particles from the sun during a particularly intense period of solar activity.

Scientists do have a better understanding and ability to predict solar storms and the cycles they follow. That's a good thing since so much we depend on from our power grid, communications, and electronics can all be affected.

During the Carrington Event in 1859, the intensity of solar activity was so strong that the resulting geomagnetic storm induced electric currents in telegraph wires that caused arcing, electric shocks to opertors, and even fires. An event like that today would cause widespread damage and disruption to the electric power grid and damage electronics. It would be nice to have some warning.

We need to keep looking at ways to defend ourselves from it. I'm sure it's a DARPA project or something like that!

 

[Jeff Ulrich]

We need to keep looking at ways to defend ourselves from it. I'm sure it's a DARPA project or something like that!

I certainly hope we are. There are always cataclysmic events that have happened and will happen again. A skyscraper-sized chunk of rock on a collision course with Earth, a supervolcano throwing enough particles into the upper atmosphere to cause year around winter for several years, an even bigger solar storm than the Carrington Event are all things that have happened and will likely happen again. I'm not sure we can do anything about some of those things other than work on predicting them and hope it doesn't happen in our lifetimes and that by the time it does it can be prevented or mitigated. It makes some of the things we argue over and waste our resources on seem mighty petty.