Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that our aurora webcam will be up and running 365 days per year! You can now enjoy watching the Midnight Sun and all of the other drama in the sky above Abisko National Park, Sweden here. | | |
CAN BIRDS SEE SPACE WEATHER? Researchers have long suspected that birds can see magnetic fields. Now, two new studies have identified a specific protein that gives birds this uncanny sense. Both single out Cry4, a light-sensitive protein found in the retinas of zebra finches and European robins. This raises the interesting possibility that birds can see geomagnetic storms--not only by watching auroras as humans do, but also by witnessing the underlying unrest of Earth's magnetic field. Learn more about the research from ScienceNews.
A HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: A wide hole in the sun's atmosphere is facing Earth and spewing a stream of solar wind toward our planet. Estimated time of arrival: April 9th. In this extreme ultraviolet image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, we see not only the hole, but also a bushy filament of magnetic bordering the hole's leading edge:
Such filaments are often unstable. If this one erupts while it is facing Earth, it could hurl a CME in our direction, adding to the effect of the incoming solar wind.
The canyon-shaped hole is remarkably wide, stretching more than 700,000 km from end to end. As a result, Earth could be under the influence of its gaseous emissions for days. Polar geomagnetic unrest and minor G1-class magnetic storms are possible from April 9th through 13th. Free: Aurora Alerts.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
MOTHER'S DAY IS ONLY 5 WEEKS AWAY: Nothing says "I Love You" like a heart-shaped pendant from the edge of space. On March 17, 2018, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew an array of cosmic ray sensors to the stratosphere onboard a giant helium balloon. This pendant went along for the ride:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling these pendants as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray monitoring program--and they make great Mother's Day gifts. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation measurements and hands-on STEM education.
Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. Mom-satisfaction guaranteed.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
TWILIGHT GREEN: When the sun went down last night in Harstad, Norway, the colors of the sunset included blue, orange ... and green. "With Arctic summer fast approaching, our nights are disappearing rapidly, but I still keep an eye on the sky in case auroras appear," says Ross McLaughlin, who photographed the display:
"Despite low solar activity, the auroras were very bright. It's a wonderful to see them mixed with the colors of the twilight sky. I'll have to make the most of it while I can before the midnight sun arrives!"
This mixture of twilight blue + aurora green will continue to appear around the Arctic Circle for a few more weeks as the seasons change. Dates of special interest are April 9th - 12th when a wide stream of solar wind is expected to engulf Earth, possibly sparking 4 or 5 consecutive days of polar auroras.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Every night, a network of
NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.
On Apr. 6, 2018, the network reported 7 fireballs.
(7 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (
PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding
new ones all the time.
On April 6, 2018 there were 1882 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2018 EM4 | 2018-Apr-01 | 6.3 LD | 6.2 | 31 |
2004 FG29 | 2018-Apr-02 | 4 LD | 14.9 | 22 |
2018 ER1 | 2018-Apr-02 | 15.6 LD | 4 | 25 |
2018 GE | 2018-Apr-03 | 4.1 LD | 2 | 13 |
2018 EB | 2018-Apr-04 | 10.4 LD | 15.1 | 160 |
2018 FW4 | 2018-Apr-05 | 9.8 LD | 11.6 | 35 |
363599 | 2018-Apr-12 | 19.3 LD | 24.5 | 224 |
2014 UR | 2018-Apr-14 | 9.3 LD | 4.4 | 17 |
2016 JP | 2018-Apr-20 | 12 LD | 12.7 | 214 |
2012 XL16 | 2018-Apr-23 | 15.8 LD | 6.1 | 28 |
2013 US3 | 2018-Apr-29 | 10.1 LD | 7.7 | 214 |
2018 FV4 | 2018-Apr-29 | 17.7 LD | 6.5 | 61 |
2002 JR100 | 2018-Apr-29 | 10.8 LD | 7.7 | 49 |
1999 FN19 | 2018-May-07 | 9.7 LD | 5.7 | 118 |
2016 JQ5 | 2018-May-08 | 6.3 LD | 10.4 | 9 |
388945 | 2018-May-09 | 6.5 LD | 9 | 295 |
1999 LK1 | 2018-May-15 | 13.3 LD | 10 | 141 |
68347 | 2018-May-29 | 9.5 LD | 13.3 | 389 |
2013 LE7 | 2018-May-31 | 17.8 LD | 1.7 | 12 |
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here:
This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California.
What is this all about? Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015:
Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.
The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.
The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Reneger and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.
| The official U.S. government space weather bureau |
| The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
| Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
| 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory |
| Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
| from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
| from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| the underlying science of space weather |
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