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SOLAR
WIND: A medium-speed (~425 km/s)
stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic
field. The solar wind is not blowing hard enough
to ignite a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but
it is stirring up some beautiful auroras around
the Arctic Circle. Check the realtime
aurora gallery for latest images.
ANOTHER
FAST-GROWING SUNSPOT: The sunspot
number is increasing again. During the past 36 hours,
active region AR1618 has more than quadrupled in
size. It now has more than a dozen dark cores scattered
across an expanse of stellar surface more than 10
times wider than Earth. This movie from NASA's Solar
Dynamics Observatory shows the sunspot's recent
development:
The sunspot has also developed a 'beta-gamma'
magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar
flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of
M-class
flares and a 5% chance of X-flares
during the next 24 hours. Because of the sunspot's
nearly central location on the solar disk, any eruptions
will likely be Earth-directed. Solar
flare alerts: text,
voice.
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
INSIDE
THE SHADOW OF THE MOON: On Nov.
13/14, the Moon passed directly i front of the sun.
This arrangement, which produced a
total eclipse, cast the shadow of the Moon directly
down on northeast Australia. Using a wide-field
camera, eclipse-chaser Alan Dyer photographed the
shadow as it raced across the sky over Lakeland
Downs, Queensland. Scan the images, then read Dyer's
account of the shadow-transit below:
"This collage of wide-angle shots
shows the motion of the Moon's conical shadow,"
he explains. "At top, you can see the bottom
edge of the shadow just touching the Sun. This was
second contact and the diamond ring effect that
begins totality. The middle frame was taken near
mid-eclipse and shows the bright horizon beyond
the Moons shadow. However, the Sun is not centered
on the shadow because we were located well north
of the eclipse's center-line, where we had gone
to escape nearby clouds. The bottom frame was taken
at the end of totality as the first bit of sunlight
bursts out from behind the Moon. Notice the sun
sitting at the well-defined left edge of the Moon's
shadow. The shadow moved off to the right."
People who have experienced total
eclipses first-hand say the Moon's shadow is one
of the most amazing aspects of the experience. Its
arrival causes many birds to stop singing; a hush
descends on the landscape as the sky darkens and
the air temperature suddenly drops. The Moon's shadow
lances more than a quarter million miles across
the silent vacuum of space, and when it lands on
Earth, it seems to bring a bit of otherworldly cold
with it.
For more otherworldly images of the
eclipse, browse the gallery:
Realtime
Eclipse Photo Gallery
Realtime
Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2011]
