more geomagnetic and space weather anomalies
Very interesting patterns. Some of them leave me feeling quite good. Some of them, not so good. Like all weather, it changes.
At the time I started composing this it was a good one. My teeth were literally buzzing for almost an hour. Felt charged, and my hair was doing odd prickly things, on my scalp and on my arms. It was sunny on the opposite side of the world and there was a "coronal stream" in line with the earth-and when it hits the earth on the opposite side, it streams around and the charge creates a "pull" on this side, and I'm sure that's what I was feeling. It was nowhere near as weird as what preceded my house being struck by lightning.
As I suspected that the total electron content over my area had gone up again, and that there had been an increase in the solar wind affecting the ionosphere, I did some more poking around on the space weather sites. Found some interesting things going on at just that time.
Here's a plot of the current status of ourionosphere
Here's a 3 day Electron Flux plot:
3 day reading from the magnetometer at Boulder.
Around 3 am on both plots I could see things started shifting upward at that point and kept climbing steadily for a while. I could tell when we were no longer aligned with the coronal stream, also, as my energy shifted drastically, along with my mood. 4 hours later, I began crying. I got plenty to cry about with or without space weather, but it is remarkable how much this accounts for mood shifts over time. I am not the only person tracking these things and I now suspect that a good many sensitive souls are deeply affected by these shifts.
Just knowing about this and being able to check changes in feelings against real time data really does help. Doesn't change the misery immediately, but at least I can motivate myself to check and realize "eh, it's the weather, chill out" and then I watch something on tv, think about or do something else and can wait for it to pass.
Our bodies have copper and iron and other minerals in them. If ionizing radiation can affect electrical transformers and communications networks on the ground, why shouldn't it affect our heads? Makes sense to me. Maybe this is why some people appear to go overboard using tin foil? I'm personally not inclined to go there, but I certainly wouldn't criticize or make fun of anyone who did.
It's not like we can really protect ourselves from any of this.. nor do we need to protect ourselves against it. What can be helpful is being aware of the influence so that we don't do something destructive in response, unaware of the magnitude of the influence on our emotions and impulses.
Suppose you ingested a drug unknowingly, and began to feel moody and weird-you'd try to do something about it. If that drug made people feel depressed and miserable and like everything was wrong with their world, they might post things and say things not in keeping with their "usual self". And when it wore off, there might be damage in their interpersonal relationships because they weren't aware of the drug, the effects, or the degree to which their cognition and mood had been affected or impaired at the time they'd interacted or posted or responded to someone or something.
Space weather is like that-it's an alteration in ordinary consciousness. Not always pleasant. I tend to notice the unpleasant more than the other. Now I suspect that on the days I'm getting the more pleasant side of things, it is also an influence, and I'll be checking that, too. But on the side of miserable feelings, it's been good to have a way to independently validate that I'm not crazy, just operating (temporarily) under the influence of space weather.
Dynamic Total Electron Content-another way of looking at the ionosphere.
Once an hour Total Electron Content, better for low-bandwidth connections.
NOAA/NWS Space Weather Prediction Center Plots showing electron flux, proton flux, x-ray activity, K index and much more.
Estimated planetary K index
Auroral Activity Index Northern and Southern hemisphere aurora data, photos of the oval, time lapse images, probability indices, and more. It also shows how to calculate your magnetic latitude by zip or postal code. Use magnetic latitude together with information from space weather reports, especially the planetary K index, to determine when you have an increased chance of spotting the aurora borealis or australis, depending on where you are.
Today and tomorrow night and morning might be very good times for viewing the auroras, as there's been streaming from a coronal hole and that charges the earth's ion belt, which is what creates the lights. There's also a spectacular conjunction. You can read about it on the NWS/NOAA Space Weather site.
At the time I started composing this it was a good one. My teeth were literally buzzing for almost an hour. Felt charged, and my hair was doing odd prickly things, on my scalp and on my arms. It was sunny on the opposite side of the world and there was a "coronal stream" in line with the earth-and when it hits the earth on the opposite side, it streams around and the charge creates a "pull" on this side, and I'm sure that's what I was feeling. It was nowhere near as weird as what preceded my house being struck by lightning.
As I suspected that the total electron content over my area had gone up again, and that there had been an increase in the solar wind affecting the ionosphere, I did some more poking around on the space weather sites. Found some interesting things going on at just that time.
Here's a plot of the current status of ourionosphere
Here's a 3 day Electron Flux plot:
3 day reading from the magnetometer at Boulder.
Around 3 am on both plots I could see things started shifting upward at that point and kept climbing steadily for a while. I could tell when we were no longer aligned with the coronal stream, also, as my energy shifted drastically, along with my mood. 4 hours later, I began crying. I got plenty to cry about with or without space weather, but it is remarkable how much this accounts for mood shifts over time. I am not the only person tracking these things and I now suspect that a good many sensitive souls are deeply affected by these shifts.
Just knowing about this and being able to check changes in feelings against real time data really does help. Doesn't change the misery immediately, but at least I can motivate myself to check and realize "eh, it's the weather, chill out" and then I watch something on tv, think about or do something else and can wait for it to pass.
Our bodies have copper and iron and other minerals in them. If ionizing radiation can affect electrical transformers and communications networks on the ground, why shouldn't it affect our heads? Makes sense to me. Maybe this is why some people appear to go overboard using tin foil? I'm personally not inclined to go there, but I certainly wouldn't criticize or make fun of anyone who did.
It's not like we can really protect ourselves from any of this.. nor do we need to protect ourselves against it. What can be helpful is being aware of the influence so that we don't do something destructive in response, unaware of the magnitude of the influence on our emotions and impulses.
Suppose you ingested a drug unknowingly, and began to feel moody and weird-you'd try to do something about it. If that drug made people feel depressed and miserable and like everything was wrong with their world, they might post things and say things not in keeping with their "usual self". And when it wore off, there might be damage in their interpersonal relationships because they weren't aware of the drug, the effects, or the degree to which their cognition and mood had been affected or impaired at the time they'd interacted or posted or responded to someone or something.
Space weather is like that-it's an alteration in ordinary consciousness. Not always pleasant. I tend to notice the unpleasant more than the other. Now I suspect that on the days I'm getting the more pleasant side of things, it is also an influence, and I'll be checking that, too. But on the side of miserable feelings, it's been good to have a way to independently validate that I'm not crazy, just operating (temporarily) under the influence of space weather.
Dynamic Total Electron Content-another way of looking at the ionosphere.
Once an hour Total Electron Content, better for low-bandwidth connections.
NOAA/NWS Space Weather Prediction Center Plots showing electron flux, proton flux, x-ray activity, K index and much more.
Estimated planetary K index
Auroral Activity Index Northern and Southern hemisphere aurora data, photos of the oval, time lapse images, probability indices, and more. It also shows how to calculate your magnetic latitude by zip or postal code. Use magnetic latitude together with information from space weather reports, especially the planetary K index, to determine when you have an increased chance of spotting the aurora borealis or australis, depending on where you are.
Today and tomorrow night and morning might be very good times for viewing the auroras, as there's been streaming from a coronal hole and that charges the earth's ion belt, which is what creates the lights. There's also a spectacular conjunction. You can read about it on the NWS/NOAA Space Weather site.