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QUIET WEEKEND: Solar activity is low this weekend as multiple sunspots are in decay and pose no threat for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters say the chance of M- or X-class flares is no more than 1%. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
AURORA DUNES OVER SAND DUNES: For a few hours during last month's severe geomagnetic storm, the sky mirrored the Earth. "On March 23rd, I photographed aurora dunes over the Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan's lower peninsula," reports Ethan Hohnke of Empire, Michigan:
"At first I wasn't quite sure what I captured, other than knowing I was seeing something I hadn't seen before," Hohnke.
He's not alone. Many people are unaware of "aurora dunes," a form of Northern Lights that was identified by researchers only a few years ago. Named after their resemblence to terrestrial sand dunes, aurora dunes are a "mesospheric bore." This is a type of atmospheric gravity wave that springs up from Earth's surface and gets caught in a thermal waveguide ~100 km high. When solar wind particles rain down on the bore, they illuminate its rippling structure:
Sky watchers in the Arctic have been seeing dunes for years without understanding what they were. A breakthrough came on Oct. 7, 2018, when multiple groups photographed dunes from widely separated locations in Finland. Triangulation revealed the dunes to be ~100 km high with a pure, sinusoidal wavelength of about 45 km.
This is a new field of study with potential for discovery. Monitoring aurora dunes may reveal previously hidden waves and waveguides at the boundary between Earth and space. If you see any, submit your photos here.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
FARSIDE SOLAR ACTIVITY: Over the weekend multiple CMEs have flown away from the farside of the sun including this faint halo event on April 1st:
What makes it a "halo" CME? It surrounds the sun on all sides. Halo CMEs may be either coming directly toward Earth or flying directly away. Both geometries result in a 360 degree halo. In this case there was no explosion on the quiet Earthside of the sun, so it must be a farside event.
This CME and several others that appeared over the weekend suggest that the farside of the sun is currently more active than the Earthside. The source of the blasts will turn to face our planet in the next week to 10 days. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
OCEAN BLUE CRYSTAL DOLPHIN PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Ocean Blue Crystal Dolphin Pendant. It flew to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $199.95. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling these crystal cetaceans to support their cosmic ray monitoring program.
The dolphin is wrapped in a sterling silver wave and suspended from a matching 18-inch chain. It contains no nickel, no lead, no cadmium; the pendant is totally hypoallergenic. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the dolphin in flight, and telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 02 2023, the network reported 4 fireballs.
(4 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 2, 2023 there were 2327 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2023 FU3 | 2023-Mar-28 | 12.1 LD | 7.5 | 18 |
2014 GC34 | 2023-Mar-29 | 13.7 LD | 25.9 | 85 |
2023 FP13 | 2023-Mar-29 | 8.7 LD | 13.6 | 34 |
2022 YK4 | 2023-Mar-29 | 11.9 LD | 2.3 | 25 |
2023 FR1 | 2023-Mar-30 | 19 LD | 7.9 | 45 |
2023 EK2 | 2023-Mar-30 | 12.9 LD | 15.4 | 83 |
2017 SE12 | 2023-Mar-30 | 5.2 LD | 8.4 | 15 |
2023 FQ4 | 2023-Mar-30 | 4 LD | 7.5 | 11 |
2023 FH7 | 2023-Mar-30 | 0.4 LD | 8.7 | 6 |
2016 GH1 | 2023-Mar-30 | 7.7 LD | 5.8 | 11 |
2023 FO3 | 2023-Mar-31 | 6.6 LD | 10.2 | 17 |
2023 FF7 | 2023-Apr-01 | 8.7 LD | 10.8 | 15 |
2023 FZ10 | 2023-Apr-01 | 2.7 LD | 2.8 | 7 |
2023 FY6 | 2023-Apr-02 | 10 LD | 22.5 | 32 |
2022 GO3 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17 LD | 11.6 | 15 |
2021 GN1 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17.7 LD | 14.2 | 18 |
2023 FU6 | 2023-Apr-03 | 4.9 LD | 10.2 | 14 |
2023 FS11 | 2023-Apr-03 | 17.3 LD | 11.7 | 26 |
2023 FA7 | 2023-Apr-04 | 5.9 LD | 24 | 29 |
2023 FQ7 | 2023-Apr-05 | 15 LD | 8.4 | 21 |
2023 FZ3 | 2023-Apr-06 | 10.9 LD | 18.8 | 48 |
2018 FD | 2023-Apr-06 | 16.2 LD | 7.8 | 47 |
2023 FE4 | 2023-Apr-06 | 9.6 LD | 2.6 | 32 |
2023 FM | 2023-Apr-06 | 7.8 LD | 15.8 | 162 |
2020 FL4 | 2023-Apr-06 | 14.1 LD | 5 | 14 |
2023 FX13 | 2023-Apr-09 | 8.2 LD | 13.3 | 27 |
2023 FY13 | 2023-Apr-09 | 18.5 LD | 11.9 | 55 |
2023 FP5 | 2023-Apr-09 | 10.7 LD | 14.1 | 40 |
2023 FC4 | 2023-Apr-09 | 19.6 LD | 10.1 | 56 |
2023 FG5 | 2023-Apr-10 | 9.5 LD | 9.4 | 24 |
2023 FT1 | 2023-Apr-10 | 19.5 LD | 6.6 | 33 |
2023 FE5 | 2023-Apr-11 | 11.6 LD | 5.8 | 28 |
2023 FS10 | 2023-Apr-12 | 3.2 LD | 7.6 | 21 |
2019 GK21 | 2023-Apr-13 | 15.2 LD | 8.1 | 27 |
2022 YK9 | 2023-Apr-13 | 19.9 LD | 9.9 | 175 |
436774 | 2023-Apr-13 | 12.5 LD | 17.6 | 719 |
2023 FN13 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.6 LD | 4.5 | 12 |
2020 BV14 | 2023-Apr-16 | 17.8 LD | 8.2 | 81 |
2006 HV5 | 2023-Apr-26 | 6.3 LD | 17.4 | 400 |
2021 JF2 | 2023-Apr-28 | 16.6 LD | 8 | 19 |
2018 VS6 | 2023-May-01 | 5.2 LD | 11.6 | 14 |
2011 KY15 | 2023-May-18 | 19.9 LD | 14.3 | 54 |
2021 JK7 | 2023-May-22 | 16.7 LD | 22.9 | 48 |
2019 UJ3 | 2023-May-23 | 15.5 LD | 9.8 | 21 |
2023 CL3 | 2023-May-24 | 18.9 LD | 7.3 | 121 |
2021 KO2 | 2023-May-29 | 15.8 LD | 13.9 | 9 |
2012 KP24 | 2023-May-31 | 10.3 LD | 12.4 | 19 |
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost 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 sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-year low:
What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down.
.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Technical notes: 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.
Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-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 Regener 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. |
| information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
| current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page |
| Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
| 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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