Heads UP!!! Poss. Aurora Nov 24/25/26!!!

[K5TEN]

CORONAL HOLE: Japan's Hinode spacecraft is monitoring a dark hole on the sun--a coronal hole. Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. In images taken by X-ray telescopes, such as the one Hinode uses, coronal holes appear dark because the hot glowing gas which would otherwise fill them has spilled out in the solar wind. A stream of gas flowing from this particular hole is heading for Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on Nov. 25th or 26th.


Yeah, I know what it SOUNDS like......time to pull Ole Sol's finger....

We might very well be getting High Latitude Aurora that might totally mess up the low bands (160 through 40M) and then again up to 20M. On the other hand, we might have widespread 2M, 6M, and 10M MONSTER AURORA.....(depending, of course, on how badly Ole Sol needs his finger pulled.)

You folks further north than Sacremento, Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Columbus,& Philly need to listen UP! (Stations further south of those cities have a far rarer chance of aurora---but listen around anyway...freak Auroras have been seen as far south as Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

How to get the HEADS UP on possible Aurora openings: Hopefully you still have TV antenna POINT IT NORTH...if you do, flip around to channels that you have nothing on locally. You can also listen on the FM broadcast band and listen to channels you don't normally find radio stations. On 10M: listen between 28.185 and 28.299 for low powered CW "beacon" stations. Be on the look out for stations EAST, WEST, and further NORTH than you. If you have a beam antenna for 2M, 6M, or 10M, turn it either due North or Magnetic North....sacanning on an axis east and west of north if you have a rotor.

Stations will not always sound like perfect audio.

CW: Stations will sound "watery" as if you are hearing them under water or a "bubbly" sound
SSB: Will sound as if it is kind of "echoy"
FM: May be anywhere from slightly to extremely distorded---possibly not useable
AM: May be anywhere from slightly to extremely distorded---possibly not useable
PSK/Digtal: Your best (besides CW) bet for best copy

Reason: Signals are bouncing off an unseen solar wind that is not a level surface!

Let's see if this turns out to be a real aurora event. The more people who help to document it (like YOU) the better. Post any Aurora catches HERE on this thread.

At this writing, the A and K indicies are both at 1. Listen (at 16 minutest past the hour on WWV) for the latest hour by hour A & K indicies.


Good Luck, and Good Hunting!



73

Bruce
K5TEN/WDX9KJX

[K5TEN]

11/24/2008 17:46Z

Solar Flux = 69
A Index = 3
K Index = 0


The A Index is jacked up from 0 to 3 since the last update.

You can actually VIEW a virtual Aurora http://spaceweather.com/ scroll down the left side of the page under the K index.

No 10M beacons heard at this time.

Stay tuned!


73

Bruce

[K5TEN]

Last night, after 0400Z, Many E-skip 10M contacts from AR into the desert SW: NM, AZ.

On 40M, many US stations noticed aurora on most of the northern US/Canada stations.

Should continue through tonight to tomorrow night.



Bruce

[NW7US]

Did that aurora pan out? Working Aurora can be an interesting experience. Aurora can even influence AM broadcast band DXing, by blocking propagation from areas normally heard, allowing weaker signals from elsewhere to be heard. Lots of fun, that.

From http://prop.hfradio.org -

(rendered on 27-Nov-08 1637 UTC)

Sun Spots: 0 as of 11/26/2008 :: Flux: 68 | Ap: 11 | Kp: 2 (19 nT)
Solar Wind: 512 km/s at 1.0 protons/cm3, Bz is 0.0 nT
(Nov 27, 2008 at 1630 UT)

Most recent satellite polar pass:
Centered on 11/27/2008 : 1456 UTC
Aurora Activity Level was 6 at 1456 UTC

Looks like there was minor aurora this morning. How about last night?

There's still a chance for some minor geomagnetic disturbance, today, with the Solar Wind speed above 500 km per second. If the Bz (B-sub-Z) dips negative, it will degrade geomagnetic calm, in turn possibly triggering some aurora. Gotta have some plasma as well. Otherwise, it will just depress the ionosphere, lowering the usable frequencies.

Let's see what comes... but I suspect the best opportunity has passed.

[K5TEN]

I do not have 2m SSB, and my 6M all mode is here--but I don't have the antenna built for it yet.

I used 10M all three nights and here,we had sporatic E events all three nights in Central Arkansas. Tuesday and Thursday nights were definitely the best on 10M!! There were stations effected by aurora on 40 & 80M, but we did not have a full blown aurora event. When the A index is 8 or greater is when that happens. The most I saw it top out was at 3...but we got some very good E-Skip out of it on 28 mHz!

I made some great contacts into the SW from here, but the bad part was that the original station I was in QSO with both times decided to talk (even after I had thanked him for the contact) right through the opening. I do not understand why some ops on 10M want to tell you their life story during meteor scatter or E-Skip openings! The openings can be very short--and why attempt to ragchew and make one contact in the opening when you could make 10 or 15??

I don't get it. The first night, I actually said 73 and left and went down the band and called CQ again...he found me----and yap-yap-yap-yapped through that opening until the band was dead.



73


Bruce





EDIT: PS---This just in from Spaceweather.com:

"The feast continues next week. Another solar stream is heading toward Earth, due to arrive on or about Dec. 5th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras."

[K5TEN]

It's confirmed:

Another corona hole has opened and the wind is supposed to reach Earth Dec. 3, 4, and 5th.

Get ready for more Aurora and more E-Skip!


73



Bruce

[K5TEN]

So far the second coronal hole event has been a bust.


Bummer.


Bruce