Astroblog: Geomagnetic Alert (2 September 2016)

Friday, September 02, 2016

Geomagnetic Alert (2 September 2016)

The Australian Space Weather Service (SWS ) has issued a Geomagnetic Alert for 2 September as there was a G1 storm in progress. This has died down now, with the Hobart magnetometer showing a (very non-storm) Kindex of 3, Velocity: 611 km/sec Bz: -1.0 nT Density = 8.0 p/cc. It is likely that conditions will be unsettled and swing about in the evening with brief bursts of aurora in Tasmania (and possibly camera only in Southern Victoria) and long quite periods of quiet. Evening and morning skies are Moon free, but cloud is problematic with extensive cloud in Tasmania.

Dark sky sites have the best chance of seeing anything, and always allow around 5 minutes for your eyes to become dark adapted.
As always look to the south for shifting red/green glows, beams have been reported consistently over the last few aurora and a large green "blob" has been seen, as well as bright proton arcs and "picket fences".

As don't forget the continuing "Planet dance". If you are going out in the dusk, Venus Jupiter and Mercury are hovering in a triangle above the western horizon, jined by the Moon on the 3rd. Mars , Saturn and the red star Antares form a matching triangle higher in the western sky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds http://satview.bom.gov.au/
Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

The all sky aurora camera in Northern Tasmania at Cressy is currently borked
<http://www.ips.gov.au/Geophysical/4/2>

SUBJ: IPS GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE ALERT
ISSUED AT 0530 UT ON 02 SEP 2016 BY IPS RADIO AND SPACE SERVICES
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE FORECAST CENTRE

MINOR (G1 - MINOR) GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE IN PROGRESS (K OF 5 REACHED)
PRELIMINARY AUSTRALIAN REGION K INDICES FOR 02 09 16: 45-- ----

FOLLOW THE PROGRESS OF THIS EVENT ON THE IPS SPACE WEATHER STATUS PANEL,
HTTP://WWW.IPS.GOV.AU > SPACE WEATHER

Labels: aurora