The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for October 30/31, following a significant solar flare and Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the sun that occurred around 11:35 a.m. EDT on Oct. 28.
“Analysis indicated the CME departed the Sun at a speed of 973 km/s and is forecast to arrive at Earth on October 30, with effects likely continuing into October 31. When the CME approaches Earth, NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite will be among the first spacecraft to detect the real time solar wind changes and SWPC forecasters will issue any appropriate warnings,” SWPC stated.
“Impacts to our technology from a G3 storm are generally nominal. However, a G3 storm has the potential to drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence and if other factors come together, the aurora might be seen over the far northeast, to the upper midwest, and over the state of Washington.”
So be prepared for a major sky show tonight and tomorrow, with clear sky conditions forecast. And you might want to consider shutting off electronic devices to be on the safe side the next 24 hours.
Rick Nowell, Physics Lab Tech at College of the Rockies, was busy earlier this month capturing the beautiful, ethereal sky dance of the Northern Lights that were on full, glorious display.
“The Northern Lights were visible over the East Kootenay on Monday, October 11 and early Oct. 12. This was due to a M 1.6 class solar flare on Oct. 9 that sent a coronal mass ejection that hit Earth on Oct. 12, triggering a G2 solar storm. They were bright enough to be seen in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Americans reported seeing it as far South as Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio,” Nowell said.
Greens and dim reds of the Aurora reflected in the Kootenay River, near Wasa at 12:15 a.m. on Oct. 12. Facing north. The handle of the big dipper seen upper right. Rick Nowell Photo
“Hints of the aurora started around 10 p.m. and it slowly built up as a glowing gray band along the northern horizon. The NOAA space weather site showed a solar storm warning with a strong Kp=6 on the index scale. [The Kp index levels range from a quiet 0 to an intense 9.] It was worth driving out to a dark area near Wasa to check it out. By midnight it showed as two bright horizontal bands to the north horizon (as in the photo above) steadily brightening into a greenish glow and climbing above the Big Dipper stars.
“At 12:20, it suddenly broke up into bright green checkerboard patches and discharged as moving glowing spikes and curves to the northeast over Mt Bill Nye. Visibly you could see the pale green moving “flames” with reddish tints at their base. These rotated as two long cylindrical curtains: an inner brighter one rotated right, while a larger cylinder rotated left outside of it,” Nowell related.
Above video: Moving green flames over Mt Bill Nye to the Northeast with crimson at the base. This is an animated GIF with 12 frames from a small video AuroraNik_720x480 (attached).
The bright discharge subsided to a dim green glow after ten minutes, but four hours later reappeared as bright spikes (at 04:43 am MDT) as shown here in an animated GIF using frames from the college Meteor Cam.
“The aurora was bright and moving fast enough for video. The video above shows one minute of the green flames moving over Mt. Bill Nye. Video can be grainy and dim for low-light displays like this. Normally you would set the camera on a tripod and take time-exposures of around two to six seconds at 3200 ISO for each photo. Except the aurora curtains were moving too swiftly for that. The problem is, HD-1080 video is taken at 24 frames/second, so your exposure time is too brief, just 0.04sec per frame. But here I’m using a fast f/1.8 wide-angle 28mm lens which gathers a lot of light, and using 6400 ISO on the camera, which helps brighten it. It is still grainy and dim, my eye saw it brighter than the movie,” Nowell explained.
“The Northern Lights haven’t been very active the past few years. This was the first widespread occurrence. The sun has an 11-year cycle of quiet and noisy periods. We just passed the “minimum” from 2019 to April 2020. We should see more occurrences now, with max activity predicted for July 2025. For more info.
Nowell provided e-KNOW with more details about recent solar flare activity.
THE CAUSE: Solar flares that send ionized hydrogen blowing out from the Sun’s corona, containing protons and electrons. After a few days this hits the Earth and is funnelled into the Earth’s magnetic field lines at the North and South poles. It corkscrews down, and where the magnetic field lines get close together, bounces back from just above the atmosphere, around 57-63 degrees north latitude. Then it corkscrews back up again and bounces back and forth. More charge accumulates and pushes the magnetic field lines further and further apart, (it also creates a huge “ring current” circling the Earth which distorts the Earth’s magnetic field) and the charges speed up and come lower down, until the electrons and protons finally spray out along curving lines, and escape into the ionosphere at about 80 to 200 km high to collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the air.
COLOURS SEEN: The green and red glow from aurorae are jumps of electrons in oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere. The bright green that is most often seen, occurs from oxygen between 80 to 100km high. These are quick transitions, lasting 1/3 of a second, and bright. The dim red above the green auroral curtains (above 200 km) is also produced by oxygen atoms jumping from the excited state left over from the transition above and ending up in the “ground-state,” oxygen’s normal resting place. This transition is a slow event, taking around 104 seconds to complete and dim to see.
Lead image: During a strong aurora, nitrogen gas is hit hard enough by electrons to glow blue between the red and green layers and to glow crimson along the bottom edges of the curtains at 80 km. Here is an example showing the blues from May 2016. Facing north from Fernie, the constellation Cassiopeia above. Sasha Prystae (of Kimberley) photo
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
