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A gargantuan green dragon hisses in the sky over Iceland. Either “Game of Thrones” really upped its production budget for its final season, or the sun belched a barrage of charged particles into our atmosphere again.
As much as any of us would like to see a real dragon breathe flames into the winter sky, buzzkill NASA blames solar activity — as usual — for the writhing, “fire-breathing”- aurora that loomed over Iceland earlier this month.
Of course, I like the GAME OF THRONES scenario.
Thanks, UrsaRodinia
Eideard 
The discovery of a 1770 Japanese diary in 2017 depicting auroras above the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto suggested that the storm may have been 7% larger than the Carrington event [however] the auroras that resulted from the “great geomagnetic storm” on both 28 August and 2 September 1859 are thought to be the most spectacular in recent recorded history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora#Auroral_events_of_historical_significance
Re: 1859 solar storm see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 “…A solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage due to extended outages of the electrical grid. The solar storm of 2012 was of similar magnitude, but it passed Earth’s orbit without striking the planet, missing by nine days.”
See also Lloyds of London 2013 report on the potential impact of a CME [Coronal Mass Ejection] to the United States: “Solar Storm Risk to the North American Electrical Grid” https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/risk-reports/library/natural-environment/solar-storm
Evidence of an unusually strong solar storm that hit Earth in 660 BCE has been detected in Greenland ice cores—a finding which shows we still have lots to learn about these disruptive events. https://gizmodo.com/traces-of-giant-2-700-year-old-solar-storm-detected-in-1833205336
An extreme form of solar storm, known as a solar proton event (SPE), struck our planet 2,679 years ago, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If an event of such magnitude were to happen today, it would likely wreak havoc on our technological infrastructure, including communications and navigation.
It’s now the third massive SPE known to scientists, the others occurring 1,245 and 1,025 years ago. This latest discovery means solar storms of this variety are likely happening more frequently than we thought—perhaps once every 1,000 years—but more data is required to create more reliable estimates.
Lehtojarvi, on the Arctic Circle in Finland 2/28/19 (turn off the sound) https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/01/aurora-borealis-illuminates-lapland-sky
Acoustics researcher finds explanation for auroral sounds (2016) https://web.archive.org/web/20180906233713/https://elec.aalto.fi/en/current/news/2016-06-22/
Call me a bore, but I prefer an aurora to a large free-flying and fire-breathing carnivorous wild beast with full environmental protections. 🙂
Game of Thrones (HBO): “A Fury Unleashed : The Loot Train Attack” (season 7, 2017)
NSA/CSS @NSAGov Mar 5 “Follow the dragon! The #RSAC #Ghidra talk has moved! Now at Moscone West 3001, 3:40-4:40. Also streaming live in West 2000! Downloads go live after the talk.” https://twitter.com/NSAGov/status/1103051978320564230 (note presence of Q-Anon in replies, including President Trump drawing letter Q in air at CPAC https://twitter.com/ElveTwelve/status/1103067011662401536
“NSA has released an open-source, reverse-engineering, hacking tool, called Ghidra into the public domain – but can you trust it?” (Forbes 3/7/19) https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/03/07/nsa-releases-super-spooks-security-tool-so-would-you-trust-it/#7b1f362b2c59
Ghidra – National Security Agency https://www.nsa.gov/resources/everyone/ghidra/
The principal character in “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster” (1964), an armless three-headed dragon with large wings, two tails and of extraterrestrial origin, was originally referred to as Ghidrah in some English markets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ghidorah (see also Yamata no Orochi, a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon)
RSA Conference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_Conference
HT to DPRK News Service [“Official News feed of Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea”] @DPRK_News Mar 5: “US national security agency names newest “nerd” recruitment conference after Ghidra, three-headed Japanese monster of whom none of its “nerd” recruits have ever heard. Marshal Kim Jong-Un has defeated Ghidra on numerous occasions.”
“Dragon Shot Dead in Malaysia?” (Snopes) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/poor-falcor/
Photo: https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/images/photos/animals/graphics/dragonphoto.jpg
“Many Americans and Canadians have a great chance to see the northern lights on Friday night and early Saturday morning. A solar flare that erupted on March 20 is set to slam into Earth on Friday night, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a G2 watch, or moderate geostorm watch.” (CNN Updated 6:02 PM ET, Fri March 22, 2019) https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/us/northern-lights-aurora-borealis-trnd/index.html
NOAA: “A G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for the 23 March, 2019 UTC-day due to anticipated CME arrival. An asymmetric halo CME was observed in SOHO/LASCO coronagraph imagery and analysis of the CME in both LASCO and STEREO-A coronagraph imagery shows an Earth-directed component is likely. The CME was associated with a C4 flare on 20 March, 2019 at 1118 UTC (0718 EDT). A G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for the 24 March, 2019 UTC-day due to persistent CME influence. Continue to monitor our SWPC webpage for additional updates.” https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g2-moderate-watch-effect-23-march-2019-utc-day
“Chasing the Aurora Borealis” (New Yorker April 22, 2019 issue) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/29/chasing-the-aurora-borealis “Hordes of tourists are flocking to the Arctic in search of the elusive glow—which often looks more spectacular on Instagram than in reality.”
NASA: Stunning Aurora Borealis from Space in Ultra-High Definition (4K) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJAR3-UvSQ