rosat re-entry, elenin & m7.2 turkey quake (updated)

Huffington Post reports ROSAT reentered Earth atmosphere on Sunday somewhere over Southeast Asia? The Intel Hub will continue to cover Comet Elenin up to 11-9, when government takes control of nation's television during a drill. M7.2 Turkey earthquake noted as coincidental with Elenin entering Earth's orbital path.

updates: sky lights up red & green as reports of fireball entering atmosphere conflict with cme, northern lights report*
'doomsday' comet elenin is dead, nasa says*

power companies prepare as solar storms set to hit earth

(Reuters) - Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days. "The magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the moderate to strong level," said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He said solar storms this week could affect communications and global positioning system (GPS) satellites and might even produce an aurora visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

why have the northern lights moved south?

The August 3rd M-6 class solar flare (video) resulted in Auroras seen as far south in Northern Europe as Germany and Denmark. A BBC News Science article, "Why have the Northern Lights moved south?" explains Northern Lights phenomenon. "The huge ejection of charged particles from the Sun on 3 August disconnected more of the Earth’s magnetic field lines and when these snapped back to Earth the resulting auroras were visible much further south than usual." The picture (at left) taken Aug. 6th in Whitehaven, Cumbria in northern England. The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska provides amazing information on Auroras with an FAQ. Links to Aurora photography websites are provided here. You can see pretty lights without dropping acid!

impressive auroras as aurora max 2012 nears

Take a brief and beautiful tour of auroras (or aurorae) from around the world, then depart for more pix from other points in the solar system, Saturn (red) and Jupiter (blue). Auroras are building and will reach an aurora max in 2012. First stop, Northern Lights in Iceland are pictured on The Telegraph UK website. The next stop is in Scotland, where Jim Henderson captured exceptional images in, "Awe-inspiring auroras: The psychedelic majesty of the Northern Lights captured in the skies over Aberdeen. The Jovian planets are huge magnets, Jupiter's magnetosphere is 20,000 times greater than the Earth's and UV studies at the University of Arizona go into detail with auroras pictured here. The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft captured pix of Mars aurora here. Our neighbor Venus is, perhaps, unique with little intrinsic magnetic field, but has a "night glow" from the solar wind. You can learn more about how auroras form here. The viewing will only get better as we approach the Solar Max and Aurora Max of 2012.