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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Minor to moderate geomagnetic storms are possible on Aug. 17-18 when a CME is expected to sideswipe Earth's magnetic field. The storm cloud was launched earlier today by an explosion around sunspot AR3076, described below. NOAA analysts are modeling the CME for a more precise estimate of impacts and arrival time. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
DRAMATIC EXPLOSION ON THE SUN: The sun just hurled a plume of dark plasma into space following a dramatic explosion around sunspot AR3076. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast, which began on Aug. 14th around 1130 UT:
Traveling faster than 600 km/s (1.3 million mph), the plume tore through the sun's outer atmosphere, creating a coronal mass ejection (CME). Newly arriving images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) confirm that the CME has an Earth-directed component. It could sideswipe Earth's magnetic field on Aug. 17th, producing minor to moderate geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
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PERSEID RADAR ECHOES: The Perseid meteor shower peaked on Aug. 13th. Full moonlight muted the show for most observers, but it was no problem for the GRAVES space surveillance radar. "Last night was very active with strong signals and lots of Perseids," reports Heiko Ulbricht, who recorded these echoes from his listening station in Freital, Germany:
Located in France, GRAVES scans the skies for satellites, meteors and other space debris passing over Europe. The radar sends a series of 143 MHz pulses straight up, and anything it "pings" is reflected far and wide. Ulbricht listens to the echoes from Germany using a Yagi antenna and receiver tuned to the GRAVES frequency.
"In the screenshot, above, there are two rapidfire Perseids sandwiched between echoes from the full Moon," says Ulbricht. "Listening to GRAVES last night was really fun."
Bonus: Ulbricht also recorded an audio file. Turn up the volume and listen. The two Perseid echoes sound like high-pitched "tweets" doppler-shifted by the meteors' rapid motion through Earth's atmosphere.
Realtime Perseid Photo Gallery
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SOLAR SYSTEM CRYSTAL BALL: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Solar System Crystal Ball. Watch the video as the orb travels to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon, stretching and inverting the incredible landscape of the Sierra Nevada mountains behind it:
You can have it for $229.95. The students are selling these crystal balls to pay for their cosmic ray ballooning program. The 800 gram sphere contains a model of the Solar System, including the sun, eight planets and their moons. It makes an incredible gift for anyone interested in space.
Each one comes with a unique gift card showing the item at the edge of space and telling the story of its flight. All proceeds support Earth to Sky Calculus and hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
BREAKING WAVE: Yesterday in the core of sunspot AR3078, an S-shaped strand of magnetism erupted. What happened next was a little unusual. A blast wave shot out sideways and broke against the wall of a nearby coronal hole:
Coronal holes are voids in the sun's atmosphere where magnetic fields open up, allowing solar wind to escape. The hole's nearly vertical magnetic walls and outflowing stream of solar wind stopped this blast in its tracks.
The S-shaped filament, called a "sigmoid," re-formed after the explosion. Sigmoids are notoriously unstable, so more eruptions may be in the offing. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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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 Aug 14, 2022, the network reported 47 fireballs.
(31 Perseids, 16 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 August 14, 2022 there were 2290 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2022 OC4 | 2022-Aug-09 | 4 LD | 7.5 | 12 |
| 2022 PF | 2022-Aug-09 | 4.5 LD | 9.6 | 15 |
| 2022 PA1 | 2022-Aug-10 | 2.7 LD | 16.3 | 18 |
| 2022 PK1 | 2022-Aug-11 | 13.6 LD | 10.2 | 33 |
| 2015 FF | 2022-Aug-12 | 11.2 LD | 9.2 | 17 |
| 2022 PX1 | 2022-Aug-12 | 2.8 LD | 35.1 | 125 |
| 2022 OT1 | 2022-Aug-13 | 12.4 LD | 5.8 | 36 |
| 2022 OA4 | 2022-Aug-14 | 18.2 LD | 7.9 | 23 |
| 2022 PJ1 | 2022-Aug-16 | 11 LD | 5.9 | 19 |
| 2022 PW | 2022-Aug-16 | 1.4 LD | 7.5 | 30 |
| 2022 PC | 2022-Aug-18 | 16.5 LD | 4.1 | 62 |
| 2019 AV13 | 2022-Aug-20 | 13.8 LD | 9.2 | 135 |
| 2020 QW3 | 2022-Aug-22 | 14.1 LD | 18.1 | 30 |
| 2015 QH3 | 2022-Aug-22 | 5.6 LD | 7 | 14 |
| 2017 BU | 2022-Aug-29 | 15.8 LD | 7 | 32 |
| 2021 CQ5 | 2022-Sep-01 | 8.7 LD | 13.5 | 7 |
| 2008 RW | 2022-Sep-12 | 17.5 LD | 10.2 | 98 |
| 2020 PT4 | 2022-Sep-15 | 19.7 LD | 10.8 | 39 |
| 2016 HF2 | 2022-Sep-29 | 19.2 LD | 5.6 | 21 |
| 2018 ER1 | 2022-Oct-02 | 14.7 LD | 4 | 27 |
| 2018 VG | 2022-Oct-05 | 18.5 LD | 6.7 | 12 |
| 2021 TJ10 | 2022-Oct-06 | 19.6 LD | 8.1 | 6 |
| 2006 SG7 | 2022-Oct-07 | 16.7 LD | 18.4 | 93 |
| 2013 TJ6 | 2022-Oct-07 | 11.7 LD | 14.4 | 32 |
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 |
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 |
| | 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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