Magnetic Storm (Aurora producing)

Space Weather News for Nov. 20, 2003
http://spaceweather.com

A coronal mass ejection swept past Earth during the early hours of Nov.
20th and sparked bright auroras over northern parts of the United States.
At the time of this writing (1600 UT or 11:00 a.m. EST) a strong
geomagnetic storm is in progress. The interplanetary magnetic field near
Earth has tilted sharply south--a condition which promotes geomagnetic
activity. If this condition persists, auroras are possible at low
latitudes tonight.

The source of this space weather is sunspot 484--one of the trio of big
sunspots that caused intense solar storms last month. Indeed all three of
those active regions are back on the Earth-facing side of the sun, so more
solar activity is possible in the days ahead.

Visit Spaceweather.com for more information and pictures of today's
auroras.

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-Sam Wormley
http://edu-observatory.org/eo/aurora.html