Month: May 2021

G3 Warning

by alexenders

Here we go! And I was beginning to wonder if my alert subscription to the Space Weather Prediction Center was actually working…

For context, sunspots and solar storms seem to rise and fall on an 11 year cycle. We are entering the 25th solar cycle since we began recording them in 1755. Solar activity is predicted to hit a maximum in about 2025, although this ‘maximum’ isn’t supposed to be as strong as some other cycles. Warnings like this will become more common over the next three to four years.

Do you need to worry? Nah, not yet, unless you operate a satellite in a near-polar orbit. Enjoy the aurora.

Space Weather Message Code: ALTK07 
Serial Number: 115 
Issue Time: 2021 May 12 1259 UTC 
ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7 
Threshold Reached: 2021 May 12 1258 UTC 
Synoptic Period: 1200-1500 UTC   
Active Warning: Yes 
NOAA Scale: G3 - Strong 

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation 

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude. 
Induced Currents - Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices. 
Spacecraft - Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur. 
Navigation - Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur. 
Radio - HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent. 
Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon.

Coffee Crema

by alexenders

Over here in Europe, the bubbly froth on top of coffee is a big deal. Even the home brew coffee (pictured here, it was mine on Saturday) has it.

At first, I shrugged and said, ‘meh.’ But you know? I’ve really grown to like it – even to expect it now. It adds a certain je ne sais quois to the coffee experience.

I would love to spend a whole day testing and trying different coffee aromas and foamy textures – and in the culture of Vienna, I am 100% sure that there are people that do exactly that most Sundays – but I’m saving that topic for another post.

For now, enjoy the crema. Because it makes a coffee good.

Third Inaugural Blog Post

by alexenders

This is approximately the third blog I’ve started on the internet. One has long since been relegated to the digital trash bin (pre-2000’s), one is still online but has not been updated since 2014 (and I probably will stop renewing the domain name at the end of 2021…). Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm?

I see this as a window to put my version of “content” on the internet, but I’m conflicted. Who reads blogs any more? Who actually makes time to seek out an internet site (bookmarked or not) to read someone else’s thoughts? With the accelerating velocity of information (and I use that term intentionally), it’s all Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and whatever content-for-the-millisecond platform you can dream up. Not interested? Keep scrolling, and you’ll never see those thoughts ever again. Gone, save only for some few kB entry in a MongoDB or MariaDB record somewhere, probably never to be seen again.

But I can’t complain too vociferously: look at what I consider to be some really great repositories of good, thoughtful writing: The Atlantic, The New Yorker (I still don’t get the cartoons, though…), sometimes Politico, Ars Technica … many other outlets of information where the information providers do some serious, deep-dive, thesis-level reporting. Do I pay for that?

Unfortunately not.

Perhaps my third attempt to be an information-provider on the internet (rather than solely an information consumer) will change my behavior.