Here in the upper midwest (WI), we experienced an opening to the east
beginning at 0000 Sunday (1.5 hr after sunset) lasting for the next 5-6
hours. It began with the Maritimes and New England and proceeded steadily
south to Nc and SC. Perhaps this was some sort of precursor to the events
later Sunday, described by N7DF.
I made about 1/3 of my total Q's during this 5-hour period.
- Tom, K9BTQ
----- Original Message -----
From: "N7DF" <n7df@yahoo.com>
To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 5:04 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] What happened
The surprising propagation that occurred on Sunday afternoon appears to have
been the result of a major shift in the interplanetary magnetic field as
evidenced by the NOAA plots
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ace/MAG_3d.html
http://spaceweather.com/glossary/imf.html
All day saturday the earth-sun flux path (Bz) was positive or north oriented
but it shifted about 0300Z allowing the solar wind to penetrate the northern
hemisphere until about 2000Z when it began to "ring" creating sparadic
bursts of high energy areas in the ionosphere. This was evidenced by the
"spotlight" opening that many prople enjoyed with good runs into limited
areas.
This was one of the most clearcut cause and effect examples I have ever
seen. It probably would not have been evident if it had not been for all the
contest activity.
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