Geomagnetic Storm Watch

[Rabbitto]

Solar Cycle 23 petered out about 4 years ago and Solar Cycle 24 has taken quite a few years to get going. This means that the sun has been relatively quiet up until the past week in regards to sunspots. Due to some activity in sunspot 1158 aver the past week the Solar Cycle has started to ramp up (this is normal solar activity so don't panic) Here is a quote from the SolarCycle24.com website which references NOAA

Geomagnetic Storm Watch - As of 21:45 UTC Thursday, there has still not been any shock detected from any one of atleast 3 incoming Coronal Mass Ejections. The following statement below is from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.

February 17, 2011 -- The first interplanetary shock, driven by the CME from Sunday, is expected any time. Soon thereafter, the shock from Monday evening's R3/CME is due. Look for G1-G2 (and maybe periods of G3 if the following shock compresses and enhances the CME magnetic field). Geomagnetic storming should persist 24- 48 hours.

Another source is stating that the incoming CME activity could have missed us altogether. Time will tell.

It will be interesting to see if this affects GPS EPE over the next few days. (At least we can blame our DNFs on it in any case)

[Happy Chappies]

And here I was clicking on the link hoping for some awesome bit of timekeeping equipment

"New from Omega - The Geomagnetic Storm Watch. GPS capable, paperless caching (font size 3), torch, barometric pressure and quartz movement, with rare earth band to extract the nastiest of nanos."

[Philipp]

"New from Omega - The Geomagnetic Storm Watch. GPS capable, paperless caching (font size 3), torch, barometric pressure and quartz movement, with rare earth band to extract the nastiest of nanos."

[honeysucker]

Damm i wish i was still an agent for Omega

[caughtatwork]

Omega employed SPIES

[gmj3191]

February 17, 2011 -- The first interplanetary shock, driven by the CME from Sunday, is expected any time. Soon thereafter, the shock from Monday evening's R3/CME is due. Look for G1-G2 (and maybe periods of G3 if the following shock compresses and enhances the CME magnetic field). Geomagnetic storming should persist 24- 48 hours.

What the ...?

First Collingwood wins a premiership.
Then it rains forever.
Now it's the suns turn to do something unexpected ...

[stagetree]

The biblical floods and the exploding sun I can put up with.....

[Rigger64]

So when is all hell going to break loose?????????????

[Apty]

As long as there are caches in hell (and I'm sure we've all encountered a few that we wish would go there), ...

[Rabbitto]

The effects were way below possible expectations, though as mentioned earlier, even if they had been a little more as predicted, this is a normal Solar Cycle occurence

From World News - The Earth appears to have escaped a widespread geomagnetic storm, with the effects confined to the northern latitudes, possibly reaching down into Norway and Canada.The event began Tuesday at 0156 GMT with a spectacular solar eruption in a sunspot the size of Jupiter that produced a Class X flash - the most powerful of all solar events.

The eruption blasted a torrent of charged plasma particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth at about 560 miles per second (900 kilometers per second), the Solar Dynamics Observatory reported.

A direct hit from a CME could trigger a huge geomagnetic storm as incoming particles bounce off the Earth's geomagnetic field, blacking out radio communications, interfering with GPS navigational systems, in theory even causing power outages. The China Meteorological Administration reported that the solar flare caused "sudden ionospheric disturbances" in the atmosphere above China and jammed shortwave radio communications in the southern part of the country.

Persell said that the spiraling beam of solar particles from Tuesday's eruption was passing behind the Earth without making a direct hit. "In this case, it appears it will curve around and not hit us," he said. He said satellite data "shows that the CME is quieting down and so there is not a whole lot left to it. So it's moved well behind us by now," he said.

At about 4:15pm on Saturday we were geocaching along the bay and both GPSrs simultaneously lost all satellite signals and it took about 2 minutes to regain contact. If we hadn't been looking at the GPSrs at that particular time, we probably wouldn't have even noticed. Did anyone notice have a slight glitch?

Note: We did have two DNFs on the day which we can now blame on the geomagnetic storm but as one cache had been archived a day before we headed out and another may have had more to do with a father and son at a playground at GZ (and we actually did go back and find it later in the day anyway) so the geomagnetic excuses probably won't hold up to the litmus test.

For interest sake, here is where we currently sit in the current Solar Cycle. The red line is the predicted and we are running way under that. (The picture is a little clearer if you click on it)

[gmj3191]

I guess I can take off my lead lined underpants then ....

[Rigger64]

Well i was looking for cache on the 13/02/11 & my GPSr was bouncing all over the place.
I tryed againg last night Same result. Went out againg To-Nite Without the GPSr But Armed with the hint & my new cache Stick & found it this time.

[Bronnie_1990]

My tom-tom was 68 kilometres out yesterday!
SIXTY EIGHT!! THAT'S ..quite a bit!

Now i know what to blame!