On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch. At least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed and expected to arrive as early as midday Friday, May 10, 2024, and persist through Sunday, May 12, 2024. Several strong flares have been observed over the past few days and were associated with a large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster (NOAA region 3664), which is 16 times the diameter of Earth. Find more information at the SWPC website.
Should see Aurora as far south as Alabama. Going to be one hella show here, all covered by clouds.....
I remember aurora here in Alabama from about that time. I still have photos somewhere. I lived in Northern Maine in the late 70s and got bored with them. The one I do remember had a bright halo that cast shadows. It also reflected off of the snow. All this makes me feel cold.
Hopefully that large sunspot group stays somewhat stable until it goes behind the limb of the sun. Close to limb, any large solar flare has more potential to cause havoc on earth. Once things settle down, we should have some great DX with the SFI as high as it is running. Clear skies in Eastern Washington tonight so will drive up into the hills to try to see what aurora might develop with this geomagnetic storm.
Just heard some strong FT4 signals on 15 meters that had so much flutter they did not decode! Anyone else seeing this?
Yep, I was just on...not just 20m but every band has auroral flutter which I rarely hear here in FL except when working stations over the pole. Even W1AW code practice has Au flutter on 40-20-17m.
As of 5/10/2023, Ace satellite reports a huge increase in the magnetic field that continues as of almost 2200Z. The field is plunging South (lets in protons and interrupts radio signals.) At the same time, the solar wind started hitting 700 km/s very strongly, and D Region absorption is very high on the sunset side of the earth, including the US. We have hit G4 -severe level. 40m has about 30dB of attenuation, and it is virtually dead when I listen from NY and WA on 2-3 ele 40m beams at over 100'. Higher bands have mostly DX strong signals but only a few US. I suspect we are hearing mostly folks on the night side which corresponds to the D region absorption data. I also hear flutter on some signals, which is typical of these storms. The peak with a KP of 8.33 (G4) is expected somewhere between 0600-0900Z 5/11 or late tonight night in the US. Although it may have started to hit us early as it seems to be now. The Aurora forecast for the next 36 minutes is huge into Europe /Asia (bright red) and minor Aurora just in parts of Maine through No Dakota. I suspect will be more to the US this evening.
40m a bit better now. Some good activity on two nets I monitor. At least on some paths but some are much weaker than usual.
