Super "Supermoon"

Get ready for yet another supermoon, except this one promises to be closer and larger. In the days ahead the moon will start to get a little bigger as it makes its closest approach to earth since 1948. Back then a gallon of gas cost 16 cents!! The supermoon will hit its peak on Monday November 14th at 8:52 am. Weekend viewing will be very good as skies should remain mostly clear.

This supermoon will appear 16% larger and shine 30% brighter than when its at its furthest point from earth. This is because the moon will be at its closest approach during it's elliptical orbit around the Earth. This close approach is known as the perigee. When a full moon coincides with perigee, it can seem bigger and brighter and that's what we will see this Monday.

To give you a better idea of what we are talking about, the moon orbits the earth in an oval pattern. There are parts of the year when it is closer to us (perigee) and times when its farther away (apogee). This weekend it will be at the closest point to us.  

 

 The local NWS office says we may get more coastal flooding due to extra high, high tides due to the closer moon:

THE APPROACH OF THE FULL MOON EARLY NEXT WEEK WILL BRING INCREASING 
TIDAL HEIGHTS ACROSS SOUTH FLORIDA THIS UPCOMING WEEKEND. IF TIDAL 
DEPARTURES CONTINUE ABOVE NORMAL, MINOR COASTAL FLOODING MAY BE 
POSSIBLE WITH HIGH TIDES. 

Solar Displays

On Wednesday morning a big display of Northern lights (Auroras) was seen in areas near the North Pole especially in Alaska. The following information is provided courtesy spaceweather.com. This display was due to a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME for short, which is simply a huge burp of energy coming out of the sun.  The picture shows an aurora as seen from Fairbanks, Alaska, it was snapped by Marketta Murray.

It was reported the CME arrived by midnight Alaska time, with the display going for hours.

NASA suggests more CMEs are expected in the near future. These displays will be due to a hole opening in the sun's atmosphere.

These are called "Coronal Holes" and they will spew out a stream of Solar Wind. The wind will aim for us.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the Coronal Hole on Nov. 9th:

These holes are areas where the sun's magnetic field opens up and lets loose a very strong stream of energy.

This stream lets "Plasma", or ionized gas that's typically trapped by the sun's magnetic field, to burst out and fly away from the sun.

Part of this stream of Plasma is on its way here and should arrive between the 11th & 12th of November.

This CME should spark more auroras in our atmosphere.

This picture shows where the Coronal Hole can be found acting as a door letting Plasma loose.

These CMEs can cause some cell phone and satellite disruptions. Very strong ones may cause power outages.

Most of these displays will be seen near the Arctic Circle.

Stay tuned.