Spotless Days Current Stretch: 0 days 2022 total: 1 day (<1%) 2021 total: 64 days (18%) 2020 total: 208 days (57%) 2019 total: 281 days (77%) 2018 total: 221 days (61%) 2017 total: 104 days (28%) 2016 total: 32 days (9%) 2015 total: 0 days (0%) 2014 total: 1 day (<1%) 2013 total: 0 days (0%) 2012 total: 0 days (0%) 2011 total: 2 days (<1%) 2010 total: 51 days (14%) 2009 total: 260 days (71%) 2008 total: 268 days (73%) 2007 total: 152 days (42%) 2006 total: 70 days (19%) Updated 21 Nov 2022
Thermosphere Climate Index today: 15.95x1010W Neutral Max: 49.4x1010 W Hot (10/1957) Min: 2.05x1010 W Cold (02/2009) explanation | more data:gfx, txt Updated 21 Nov 2022
Cosmic RaysSolar Cycle 25 is beginning, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining--a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays. Oulu Neutron Counts Percentages of the Space Age average: today: +2.8% Elevated 48-hr change: -1.2% Max: +11.7% Very High (12/2009) Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991) explanation |more data Updated 21 Nov 2022 @ 0700 UT
Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2022 Nov 21 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
20 %
MINOR
20 %
05 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
60 %
30 %
Monday, Nov. 21, 2022
What's up in space
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ORION COMPLETES LUNAR FLYBY: NASA's Orion spacecraft swooped over the farside of the Moon this morning, taking close-up photos and burning its engines in preparation for orbit insertion on Nov. 25th. NASA will host a news conference on NASA TV at 5:45 p.m. EST to discuss the maneuver and share pictures.
DIMORPHOS STILL HAS A TAIL: More than 2 months after NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into asteroid Dimorphos, debris from the collision is still visible. "Dimorphos still has a tail," reports Arizona amateur astronomer Eliot Herman, who photographed the battered asteroid on Nov. 20th and added it to his post-impact timeline:
When NASA sent DART to hit Dimorphos, the space agency hoped to change the asteroid's trajectory. It did that and more. A comet was born in the aftermath. DART's impact debris has formed a surprisingly durable tail more than 10,000 km long.
"It will be very interesting to the see the damage when the follow-up probe reaches Dimorphos," says Herman.
Four years from now Europe's Hera spacecraft will visit the asteroid to inspect the impact site. Hera was originally supposed to arrive before DART struck, but delays derailed the mission. All's well that ends well. The delay gives Hera a chance to survey the damage after the dust has finally settled.
A SMALL ASTEROID JUST HIT EARTH: Astronomers saw it coming. Just a few hours before asteroid 2022 WJ1 hit Earth on Nov. 19th, David Rankin spotted the 0.7-meter space rock in survey images from Mt Lemmon, Arizona. An imminent impact alert quickly spread to sky watchers and researchers. This video from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) shows what happened next:
Thousands of people in a broad region around Niagra Falls witnessed the impact. UWO doctoral student David Clark was one of them. He drove to the predicted fall area in the early morning hours and managed to see the fireball with his own eyes parked near Niagara-on-the-Lake. "It passed right overhead and was distinctly green in color," says Clark. "Several minutes later a sonic boom could be heard."
Astronomy professor Paul Wiegert was also alerted early enough to see the fireball. "I expected to see only a distant flash," he says. "Then the fireball suddenly appeared, passing almost overhead. Wow! It was easily visible between broken clouds and noticeably orange-red."
"This fireball is significant because the parent meteoroid was observed telescopically before it hit the atmosphere," adds Peter Brown, Canada Research Chair in Planetary Small Bodies at UWO. "We have a rare opportunity to link telescopic data of an asteroid with its breakup behaviour in the atmosphere to glean insight into its internal structure."
AMBER BUMBLEBEE SPACE PENDANT: Bumblebees don't usually fly so high. On Oct 15, 2022, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched this one to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here it is floating 115,158 feet above California's Sierra Nevada:
You can have it for $179.95. This bee is made of genuine Baltic Amber with a sterling silver exoskeleton. The rich Cognac-colored pendant measures 3/4 inch and comes with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain.
The students are selling these unique pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the bumblebee in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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 Nov 21, 2022, the network reported 25 fireballs. (15 sporadics, 9 Leonids, 1 northern Taurid)
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]
Near Earth Asteroids
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 November 21, 2022 there were 2314 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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.
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