Remarkable Solar Activity

There haven't been any strong solar flares in days. Nevertheless, some impressive activity is underway on the sun. For one thing, an enormous wall of plasma is towering over the sun's southeastern horizon. Stephen Ramsden of Atlanta, Georgia, took this picture on Nov. 11th:

© Stephen W. Ramsden
Image taken: Nov. 12, 2011
Location: Atlanta, GA

"Solar forums all over the world are buzzing with Sun-astronomers proclaiming this to be the biggest prominence that many of them had ever witnessed," he says.

Remarkably, though, this is not the biggest thing. A dark filament of magnetism is snaking more than halfway around the entire sun: SDO image. From end to end, it stretches more than a million km or about three times the distance between Earth and the Moon. If the filament becomes unstable, as solar filaments are prone to do, it could collapse and hit the stellar surface below, triggering a Hyder flare. No one can say if the eruption of such a sprawling structure would be Earth directed.

"I cant help but wonder what could possibly come next since we are still over a year away from the forecasted Solar Maximum," adds Ramsden. "There's never been a better time to own a solar telescope than now!"

More Images:
From Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY; from Theo Ramakers of Social Circle, GA; from John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine; from Randy Shivak of Elyria, OH; from Steve Riegel of Albuquerque, NM; from Robert Arnold of Ilse of Skye, Scotland

Read More

Snap! Erupting Filament

For the past few days, astronomers around the world have been monitoring a dark filament of magnetism sprawled more than 1,000,000 kilometers across the face of the sun. Make that 750,000 km. On Nov. 14th the filament snapped and flung a fraction of itself into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

© SpaceWeather

Click here to watch a 3Mb movie.

The eruption hurled a cloud of plasma into space, but not toward Earth. The only effect on our planet would be to disappoint observers hoping for a longer filament.

Meanwhile, a wall of plasma towering over the sun's SE limb is seething with activity and may be poised to erupt as well. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

More Images:
From Sylvain Weiller of Saint Rémy lès Chevreuse, France; from John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine; from Chris Hetlage of Deerlick Astronomy Village, Georgia; from David Cortner of Rutherford College, North Carolina; from Jo Dahlmans of Ulestraten The Netherlands; from Francisco A. Rodriguez of the Canary Islands; from Ron Cottrell of Oro Valley, Arizona; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano Italy; from Roel Weijenberg of Wilp, Gelderland, Netherlands; from Andy Burns of Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK.

Read More

Quantum Levitation (Video)

For an explanation of the physics in this demonstration visit Quantum Levitation.

Read More

Canada: British Columbia storm cuts power, jams highways, stops ferries

Canada: British Columbia storm cuts power, jams highways, stops ferries


CBC News
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:06 CST

© CBC News

Stormy weather has forced BC Ferries to delay ferries on several routes on Friday afternoon, cut power to thousands and caused havoc on the Coquihalla and other B.C. highways.

Shortly after 2 p.m. BC Ferries began announcing ferries would not be sailing between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, and on several smaller routes until high winds subsided.

About 50,000 BC Hydro customers in the Lower Mainland, the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island regions were without power as the wind knocked trees onto power lines during the height of the storm around 3 p.m.

Then by 3:30 p.m. the wind had subsided in some areas and some of the ferries had resumed sailing, including those on the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay route, but sailings on many routes were running behind schedule.

The storm also brought heavy snow to the Coquihalla Highway and officials were warning drivers not to use the route because of the dangerous winter driving conditions and the large number of vehicles spinning out in the snow.

Winter driving conditions are also impacting several other B.C. interior highways including Eagle Pass and Rogers Pass on Highway 1, and Pine Pass on Highway 97, and Kootenay Pass and Alison Pass on Highway 3, according to Drive B.C.

Severe weather warnings have also been issued for Vancouver, Pitt Meadows and White Rock, where winds of up to 90 km/hr are forecast for Friday afternoon and evening.

Read More