Possible aurora for Christmas 2016

[Tony O Hanlon]

Earth's orbit is about to enter a solar wind stream flowing from a large coronal hole in the Sun's atmosphere - nothing new here. As a result, polar G1-class geomagnetic storms are expected to begin on Dec. 21st (today) with magnetic unrest continuing through Dec. 25th as Earth slowly crosses the broad stream of solar wind. Be alert for Northern Lights!

[Dave Lillis]

thanks for the heads up,

[Tony O Hanlon]

An update: Around the Arctic Circle, the longest night of the year, and first day of Winter as the Sun crosses south of the celestial equator, has arrived with perfect timing. As predicted, a high-speed stream of solar wind hit Earth's magnetic field today (the northern winter solstice) filling the long hours of darkness with Northern Lights. At the time of this alert, a moderately strong G2-class geomagnetic storm is underway, and more storms are in the offing. Flowing from a huge hole in the sun's atmosphere, this solar wind stream is broad, hence Earth will take days to cross it. Currently, at 21.30hrs, the auroral oval is over N. Scotland and the Shetlands. Already some fanastic auroral displays have been seen within the artic circle - looks promising for Ireland for coming days. Cloudy here and raining - what else , but who knows.

[Dave Lillis]

well, we know that Friday is a Storm Barbara, tomorrow is not alot better, so unless it lasts until the weekend ....

Ive often found that the spaceweather site is very good for very up to date alerts, it updates from observers around the world and is usually accurate.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Tony O Hanlon]

same site I use