Embedded Files
Southwest Michigan AMS/NWA
12 December 2018
Grand Rapids NWS Office
4899 Tim Dougherty Dr SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
President Warren Wheeler called the meeting to order at 7 PM. A total of 11 people were in attendance with all of the board members present.
William Marino gave the treasurer’s report, which gives a funds balance as of 12 December of $771.09. We currently have 25 paid members for 2018.
Dues are now being accepted for 2019. They are $20 for the period January thru December but just $10 for students. You can pay the 2019 dues at the
next meeting or send a check made out to SWMI-AMS/NWA to the club mailing address at SWMI-AMS/NWA PO Box 88031 Grand Rapids, MI 49515.
Cort Scholten, our vice president, raffled off a signed copy of a book on US Tornadoes by Dr. Ted Fujita. John VanderVeen was the winner.
Our speaker was Grand Rapids NWS forecaster Heather Orow who gave a presentation on space weather. Scientists are studying the response of the earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field to the energy and magnetic field emitted by the sun. While much is still to be learned about this subject, we do know that solar disturbances can damage satellites, cause large power outages, disrupt radio signals, subject airline passengers to high amounts of radiation and in general have the potential to produce significant damage here on earth with little lead time before their occurrence. One of the positive effects of these disturbances is auroras. In 1859, auroras were seen as far south as Cuba.
Heather listed several web sites of interest about this subject. Cort Scholten listed four of these sites in his recent email to the club members which I am reproducing here:
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
"Dashboards" menu --> "Space Weather Enthusiasts" is a good place to go, but certainly not the only page you would want to visit.
NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Under "The Sun Now", click on "More Images". Click on the (i) icon in the upper-right of each image thumbnail for more information.
Aurorasaurus
http://www.aurorasaurus.org/
Crowdsourcing aurora sightings (and the mysterious STEVE, an aurora adjacent phenomenon formally discovered in 2017).
SpaceWeather
http://spaceweather.com/
Remember that Kp index = 6 is worth checking for auroras if you are north of Grand Rapids, and Kp = 7 or higher is best for hoping to see an aurora
around Grand Rapids. Cameras can help you see faint auroras better and sooner than your eye.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.
It looks as if we are going to have our January meeting on Thursday, the 10th at 6PM. Note the time change from the usual 7 PM meetings. It will be
held at the West Michigan Aviation Academy and will be presented by Marty Coaker who will show slides, videos and stories of fighting the wildfires out
west this past summer. It should be very interesting. A confirmation of the details of this meeting will be sent soon.
Respectfully submitted by
Craig James Woods
Secretary
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