NORTHERN LIGHTS GETTING CLOSE!

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

This picture is from Marquette, Michigan over Lake Superior early this morning. A few days ago, a coronal mass ejection (CME) exploded off of the surface of the sun. This was the result of what Spaceweather.com wrote:

"On August 1st, the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more."

Doesn't sound pleasant now does it? But rest assured, our lovely little atmosphere protects from what could be devastating amounts of radiation that run into our planet. Thank goodness for that!

Scientists say that there could be another burst of Aurora activity tonight as well, but our forecast is a bit on the cloudy side which wouldn't make for optimal viewing conditions. Still, it might be worth charging up the digital camera batteries just in case.