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SOLAR ACTIVITY:
With no sunspots to break the monotony, the face of the sun has
been blank and quiet for nearly a month. The edge of the sun is
another matter. "The solar limb has been pretty busy lately,"
reports Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York. "Today I photographed
several beautiful
prominences, and one of them looks like a
tidal wave." Readers, if you have a solar
telescope, point it at the limb; that's where the action is.
more images: from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
Franck Charlier of Marines, Val d'Oise - France; from
Mike Strieber of Las Vegas, Nevada; from
Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from
Monty Leventhal of Sydney Australia; from
Sylvain Weiller of Saint Rémy lès Chevreuse, France; from
Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany
VOLCANIC CLOUDS:
Alaska's Mt. Redoubt volcano has erupted no fewer than 19 times
since March 22nd, and several of the larger blasts have hurled plumes
of ash and gas into the lower stratosphere. The GOME-2 (Global Ozone
Monitoring Experiment) sensor onboard Europe's MetOp-A satellite
has been tracking Redoubt's sulfur dioxide emissions, colored red
in this March 26th SO2 column density map:
Click to view a full-sized
animation with labels
The animation begins on March 25th and ends on the
28th. One cloud has just crossed North America en route to the Atlantic
Ocean and Europe. A second cloud is leaving Alaska on the same east-west
track. The last time an Alaskan volcano blew its top (Kasatochi
in 2008), clouds like these caused fantastic
sunsets
around the northern hemisphere. More could be in the offing. If
you live along the SO2 ground track, keep an eye on the
twilight sky for signs of Redoubt--and stay tuned for updates.
CRESCENT MOON ALERT:
Tonight, when the sun goes down, step outside
and look west. You might see something like this:
P-M Hedén took the picture just a few hours ago from Vallentuna,
Sweden. "The lovely crescent Moon with Earthshine is always
so beautiful! I recorded the scene using my Canon
450D."
more images: from
Chris Kotsiopoulos of Athens, Greece; from
Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from
Mike O'Leary of El Cajon, California; from
Elias Chasiotis of Markopoulo, Greece; from
Kevin Jung of Grand Rapids, Michigan; from
Erkki Rauhala of Uurainen, Finland; from
Steven Janowiecki of Kitt Peak National Observatory; from
Mania Rahban of Isfahan, Iran; from
Luca Basili of Rome - Italy; from
Amir H. Abolfath of Dizin, Tehran, Iran; from
Ulrich C. Beinert in an airplane flying over Dresden, Germany;
from
Christopher Calubaquib of El Sobrante, California; from
Louis Suarato of Albany, NY; from
Michael Boschat of Halifax, Nova Scotia ;
March
2009 Aurora Gallery
[previous Marches: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2004,
2003, 2002]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle
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