AstroAlert zu Sichtungsmeldungen

[Ulrich Rieth]

A s t r o A l e r t
Sun-Earth Alert

Solar Terrestrial Dispatch
http://www.spacew.com
(very hard to get on right now)
(due to overwhelming traffic)

31 October 2003

HELP REQUESTED IN DOCUMENTING THE RECENT POWERFUL AURORAL STORMS

The Great Magnetic and Auroral Storm of 29 and 30 October (as it will
become known) is essentially finished now. There will be a few lingering
post-storm residual bursts of activity, but the main portion of the
disturbance has passed.

This event has undoubtably burned into the indelible memories of
many millions of people the awesome splendor of Mother Nature. It should also
reinforce the fact that powerful storms such as this can occur at just about
any time during the solar cycle. This storm occurred over 3 years after the
solar maximum (the peak in sunspot numbers) and almost half-way toward the
minimum of the solar cycle.

There is an urgent need to record these observations and the
interesting
memories associated with them for historic record. The Global Auroral
Activity Observation Network was established years ago to attempt to collect
this information and record it for historic purposes and for possible future scientific studies.

History is worthless without records and science is dead without
history. Observations of auroral activity have been made for thousands of
years, but at no time in human history has there been a medium whereby such a
large population of humanity can permanently record (in their own words) what
they observed and how they felt. That is the purpose of the global aurora
observation network on the Internet.

We would like to invite and encourage you all to take a few moments and
submit your personal observations and comments (up to 2000 characters)
concerning what you saw on 29 and 30 October 2003 to this Global Network.
The form for submiting observations is available at:

http://www.spacew.com/submitsightings.html

EVEN IF YOUR OBSERVATION IS OLD, PLEASE SUBMIT IT. The system will properly
archive all reports according to date, although it will only display the last
week (or so) of observations on the web site at:
www.spacew.com/www/auroras.html

Keep in mind that the TIME requested in the observation form is
Universally Coordinated Time (UTC time), or the time reckoned from
Greenwich,
England. The current UTC time is displayed on the form. Examine that time and
compare it to your current local time. Then subtract the appropriate number
of hours from the local time of your observation so that the recorded time
is the correct UTC time.

Recording the time and date accurately is important. If you are
confused
or are concerned you might not have converted the time of your observation
properly, then specify your local time, BUT MAKE SURE YOU NOTE THIS IN YOUR COMMENTS.

Please share this information with your friends and family who may have
also observed the auroral storm so that a large representation for this event
can be archived.

Please note that the web server at www.spacew.com has been
exceptionally
heavily loaded over the last several days and may be difficult to connect to.
It may also be slow to respond (another symptom of heavy loads). If you can't
get on, please try again later (or try again the next day). Network traffic
drops off considerably after the midnight hours in North America - so that
may be one of the better times to attempt a connection.

Thank you all for your help in preserving a record of this Great
Auroral Storm.

PS: The sun has been quiet since the last major X10 solar flare. Region 486
(the source of the powerful auroral activity of the past two days) appears to
be entering a decay phase. The likelihood of major flare activity remains
high, but will diminish as the region breaks up. Both it and Region 488
(just to the north) are still visible to the unaided (but protected!) eye.

** End of the AstroAlert Bulletin **