Earth & Space Weather

Space Weather Update~ MAGNIFICENT ERUPTION:

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MAGNIFICENT ERUPTION: A filament of magnetism curling around the sun's southeastern limb erupted on August 31st, producing a coronal mass ejection (CME), a C8-class solar flare, and one of the most beautiful movies ever recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

 

 

The explosion hurled a CME away from the sun traveling faster than 500 km/s (1.1 million mph). The cloud, shown here, is not heading directly toward Earth, but it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on or about September 3rd. This date is preliminary and may be changed in response to more data from coronagraphs on the Solar and Heliophysics Observatory (SOHO). Stay tuned. Solar Flare alerts: text, phone.

 

Southern California town declares emergency over quake swarm

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Southern California town declares emergency over quake swarm

 
 
 

LOS ANGELES | Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:04am IST

Aug 29 (Reuters) - The southern California town of Brawley has taken the unusual step of declaring a state of emergency after a swarm of earthquakes rattled nearly 20 mobile homes off their blocks and forced a slaughterhouse to close, the mayor said on Wednesday.

It is uncommon for quake-hardy California cities to declare emergencies due to tremors, but Brawley mayor George Nava said the earthquake swarm is a unique case because it has lasted for days and caused millions of dollars in damage.

The cluster of relatively small quakes, which are caused by water and other fluids moving around in the Earth's crust, began on Saturday evening and climaxed the next day with a 5.5 temblor, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The tremors were continuing on Wednesday and geologists say there have been hundreds in total.

Nava said leaders in Brawley, a city of 25,000 residents south of the state's inland Salton Sea and 170 miles (275 km) southeast of Los Angeles, declared a local emergency late on Tuesday. Officials with surrounding Imperial County made a similar declaration on Wednesday.

Nineteen mobile homes were knocked off their blocks and their residents forced out, Nava said. The auditorium at Brawley Union High School has been damaged and closed off, and the National Beef slaughter plant in Brawley has been temporarily shut down due to damage, he said.

read more http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/30/usa-earthquake-swarm-idINL2E8JTCP120120830

~Space Weather Update~ Crackling With C Class Flares

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BLUE MOON: Tonight's full Moon is the second full Moon this month. According to modern folklore, that makes it a "Blue Moon." Strange but true: Most blue moons look red, pink or gray. On rare occasions, however, the Moon can actually turn blue. A video from NASA explains how.

 

Richard Sears photographed the waxing full Moon last night from Atwater, California. It was not blue:

 

For more pictures of the Moon--red, blue, and otherwise--browse the realtime gallery:

 

Isaac slogs through New Orleans, smacks towns with flooding

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By CAIN BURDEAU and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press, August 31, 2012

Evacuations ordered over possible dam break from Isaac

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USA Today
By Rick Jervis, William M. Welch and Alison Bath

Carlo Maltese and his dog Pin ride in a boat after being rescued from his flooded home as Hurricane Isaac hits Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012, in Braithwaite, La. (David J. Phillip /AP Photo)

Officials began releasing water at a lake dam that threatened to break near the Louisiana-Mississippi border, flooding a rural area, as Isaac weakened to a tropical depression on Thursday.
 

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called the situation in the Tangipahoa Parish area "the biggest challenge" the state faced Thursday and said 40,000 to 60,000 would be affected if the dam breaks. Search-and-rescue teams have been evacuating residents within a one-mile area throughout the day. Two nursing homes also have been evacuated.

~Space Weather Update~ Sun Still Quiet

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BLUE MOON: The full Moon of August 31st is a "Blue Moon," the second full moon in a calendar month. But could the Moon actually turn blue? Today's story from Science@NASA discusses the possibilities. [video]

 

RADIATION BELT STORM PROBES: Most spacecraft try to avoid the Van Allen Belts, two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth filled with "killer electrons." This morning, NASA launched two heavily-shielded spacecraft directly into the belts. Mark Staples of Little Lake Santa Fe, Florida, photographed the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) lifting off just after 4:05 am EDT:

 

 

"I am about 150 miles NW of the launch pad, but I could easily see the bright flame as the Atlas V cleared the trees and clouds," says Staples.

Tropical Storm Isaac Continues to Dump Rain on Louisiana

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ABC News
By ANTHONY CASTELLANO,Aug. 30, 2012

Ted Jackson/Times-Picayune. A young man checks out a flooded Toyota Highlander left parked along the Mandeville Lakefront in southern Louisiana. The car was floating and its horn was blaring as Tropical Storm Isaac battered the region with strong winds and high tides.

As slow-moving tropical storm Isaac moves away from New Orleans, surrounding areas of Louisiana are expected to see almost two feet of rain and more dangerous floods by the end of the week, while seven tornadoes have spun off from Isaac in Mississippi and Alabama so far.

A tornado that touched down in Gulfport, Miss. has caused the most damage, where significant destruction to homes has been reported. Carlos Redmond, a spokesman for Harrison County Emergency Management said they're still assessing the damage.

Hurricane Isaac makes 2nd landfall ; 'deep flooding' expected after overtopping at levee

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U.S. News on NBC News

By Miguel Llanos, August 29, 2012

The Dunbar Pier on the bay side of the Bay St. Louis peninsula was rebuilt in 2007 after Katrina completely destroyed the original. The sign notifying the public of the pier's expansion was swamped Tuesday.

Updated at 5:06 a.m. ET Wednesday: The center of Hurricane Isaac made its second landfall in southeastern Louisiana early Wednesday, officials said.

The storm hit just west of Port Fourchon, La., with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph at around 2:15 a.m. local time (3:15 a.m. ET), according to aircraft and radar data from the National Hurricane Center.

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