APOD has a spectacular video of a comet impacting the Sun followed by a coronal mass ejection.
Environment
Purple Sage
There are many purple sage shrubs that grace the landscapes of homes and businesses. Now that “second spring” is here, many of the shrubs are in bloom. Click on the image to enlarge.
Arizona Sunset
Last night was just beautiful. We had a few showers and a gorgeous sunset. Click on the image to enlarge.
Solar CME Animation
This is an interesting animation showing a three-axis presentation of recent solar coronal mass ejections. You can click on the image for the full-sized animation.
From SpaceWeather.com:
FOUR CMEs: On Sept. 19th, the STEREO-SOHO fleet of spacecraft surrounding the sun detected six coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Two of the clouds rapidly dissipated. The remaining four, however, are still intact and billowing through the inner solar system.
According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, who prepared the movie, one CME should hit Mercury on Sept. 20th at 05:40 UT while another delivers a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field on Sept. 22nd at 23:00 UT. All impact times have an uncertainty of plus or minus 7 hrs.
Lightning and Thunder
Over the past several days, monsoon season has been in full swing in Arizona and other areas. We listen to a local radio station where the National Weather Service has the capability to override regular programming with NWS warnings. They have interrupted a couple of times today with alerts for severe thunderstorms in Maricopa and Pinal counties.
Damsel and I were out walking Cabela a few minutes ago when we observed a four-engine jet airliner flying above us (VERY unusual). Since the plane flew overhead eastbound and then turned to a southeast heading toward Phoenix, I can only guess that the crew diverted to this area to avoid the severe storms in progress in west-central Maricopa county and were proceeding toward Phoenix Sky Harbor.
We haven’t seen lightning shows as awesome as those depicted above, but the past several days and evenings have put on a pretty good show of lightning flashes and rolling thunder. We have had a little rain including a steady downpour for a half hour or so two or three evenings ago.
A Moderate Shake in Virginia
According to the shake map above (click to enlarge – sorry about the crappy quality, but this is the original resolution), Washington DC is about 80 miles northeast of the epicenter of the 5.8 magnitude quake. It surprised me to hear that the quake caused officials to evacuate the Capitol and other government buildings. According to the color code, the DC area would have experienced “weak” to “light” shaking and no damage to structures.
As a former resident of a very seismically active area, I can attest that most of us who experienced that amount of shaking would simply have said “Hmmm – a little temblor.” And would go on with whatever we were doing. Some of us nerdy types would go to the USGS Earthquakes website to see the epicenter and magnitude. Maybe even look at the shake map.
Wiley E. Coyote
This morning, we departed through the RV pull-thru to go to the dentist. As we approached the wash to the west of the house, we observed a coyote limping up the wash. I was about 30 feet from the animal when I took this image. It is partially obscured by the intervening brush.
I noticed that the coyote had a slight limp as it loped up the wash and out of sight. When I related the observation to one of the technicians at the dentist office, she informed me that coyotes often feign injury to attract dogs who might attack only to become prey to the wiley coyote. Click on the image to enlarge.