It has been a while now since the STD chat was online. About time for a new impulse so that we can talk to aurora fans from all over the world.
A couple of enthousiasts of the Dutch IRC aurora channel initialised #SpaceWeather at the Undernet IRC network.
Recently, they have been working on setting up this international chat again. They chose to wait making it public until last week's storm was over. In the meantime, they set up several services in the channel. Currently, the chat gives solar wind data in 5 minute updates, notification of new STD reports. There is a simple website with information and a FAQ at http://flare.irc-junkie.org/
Asmo also had contact with Cary on the chat, and he is willing to help with a real time feed of new sighting reports in the channel.
If you are not familiar with IRC, you can find more information on how to get on the channel in the IRC section of the FAQ. Use the direct link at: http://flare.irc-junkie.org/faq.html#irc2
For those who have a solid experience in IRC: we can use a couple of extra channel operators so we can keep the channel alive 24 hours a day. If you have such experience and you reckon you can help us out, please contact Asmo.
So join and chat with other aurora fans around the world!
Chatz,
Lydia de Jongh
With thanks to Asmo, MrRinuxs and Royston