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HIGH LATITUDE AURORA WATCH: Today's surprise geomagnetic storm, described below, is subsiding a little, but it is far from over. Solar wind conditions favor continued storminess; currently, indices are fluctuating between category G1 (Minor) and G2 (Moderate). These storm levels could produce auroras in northern-tier US states after nightfall especially during the hours around local midnight. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
SURPRISE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: The forecast did not call for this. During the early hours of March 23rd, a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field, and stayed open for more than 8 hours. Solar wind poured through the gap to fuel a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm. The sun was coming up in Kalispell, Montana, when Philip Granrud saw bright auroras shining through the twilight:
"The auroras started peaking around 6:30 am, which is when this photo was taken," he says. "What really set this apart from other displays was how colorful they were! I could easily see bright reds and purples despite the approaching dawn. These photos are straight outta the camera!"
more images: from Jonathan Cooper of Shap, Cumbria, UK; from Alan C Tough of Elgin, Moray, Scotland; from Matti Helin in southern Finland;
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A SOLAR RADIO BURST AT NIGHT: Something rare and strange happened last month. On Feb. 23rd, growing sunspot AR3234 produced an M-class solar flare. It was nearly midnight in Florida when the explosion occurred, so you'd expect no one there to notice. On the contrary, in the community of High Springs, FL, amateur radio astronomer Dave Typinski recorded a strong shortwave radio burst.
"You CAN see the sun at midnight in Florida... sometimes," says Typinski. This is what his instruments recorded while the flare was underway:
A double wave of static washed over Florida, filling the radio spectrum with noise at all frequencies below 25 MHz. "The Sun was 69° below the horizon when this happened," he marvels.
How is this possible? The entire body of our planet was blocking the event from Typinski's antenna. It's called "antipodal focusing." First postulated by Marconi more than 100 years ago, antipodal focusing is a mode of radio propagation in which a signal starts out on one side of the planet, gets trapped between Earth's surface and the ionosphere, and travels to the opposite hemisphere. Waves converging at the antipode can create a surprisingly strong signal.
Right: This diagram from a declassified US Gov.report shows the basic geometry of antipodal focusing.
"This is the second or maybe third midnight solar radio burst I've seen in ten years, but it's by far the strongest," says Typinski. "The previous events happened at the height of Solar Cycle 24. They're quite rare."
Pause: Yes, solar flares can produce radio signals. Typinski's midnight burst was a "Type V," caused by streams of electrons shooting through the sun's atmosphere in the aftermath of the flare. Plasma waves rippling away from the streams emited intense bursts of natural radio static. The burst was first observed in broad daylight at the Learmonth Solar Observatory in Australia, then it curved around Earth to reach Typinski.
Above: An example of antipodal focusing of seismic waves caused by the Chicxulub asteroid impact. The geometry is the same as for radio waves. [more].
"This propagation mode was used during the Cold War," notes Typinski. "The U.S. would park a SIGINT ship in the south Pacific to grab signals from the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets probably did the same thing, parking in the southern Indian ocean."
Turns out, this method of spying works for radio astronomers, too. Would you like to record an event like this? NASA's Radio JOVE program makes it easy. Off-the-shelf radio telescope kits allow even novices to monitor radio outbursts from the sun, which are becoming more frequent as Solar Cycle 25 intensifies.
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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.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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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 Mar 23 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 March 23, 2023 there were 2329 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 EZ | 2023-Mar-18 | 16.3 LD | 6.6 | 20 |
| 2023 FO | 2023-Mar-19 | 0.9 LD | 6.2 | 5 |
| 2016 WH | 2023-Mar-19 | 18.1 LD | 11.8 | 14 |
| 2023 EV2 | 2023-Mar-20 | 4.6 LD | 13.2 | 21 |
| 2023 FV1 | 2023-Mar-21 | 4.9 LD | 13.8 | 9 |
| 2018 FE3 | 2023-Mar-21 | 10.1 LD | 5.4 | 13 |
| 2023 FT | 2023-Mar-22 | 13.4 LD | 10.8 | 37 |
| 2023 FD3 | 2023-Mar-22 | 8.1 LD | 11.3 | 15 |
| 2023 FG | 2023-Mar-23 | 1.8 LD | 10.8 | 11 |
| 2023 FK1 | 2023-Mar-23 | 4.9 LD | 13.4 | 15 |
| 2023 EO1 | 2023-Mar-23 | 6.8 LD | 21.1 | 45 |
| 2023 EF2 | 2023-Mar-23 | 10 LD | 14.2 | 26 |
| 2023 FA | 2023-Mar-23 | 3.1 LD | 8.7 | 18 |
| 2023 FT2 | 2023-Mar-24 | 7 LD | 12 | 22 |
| 2023 DZ2 | 2023-Mar-25 | 0.5 LD | 7.8 | 54 |
| 2023 FL2 | 2023-Mar-26 | 12.2 LD | 6.1 | 21 |
| 2023 DX2 | 2023-Mar-27 | 8.5 LD | 9 | 53 |
| 2023 FW2 | 2023-Mar-27 | 3.2 LD | 8.7 | 9 |
| 2023 FZ2 | 2023-Mar-27 | 3.6 LD | 12.2 | 17 |
| 2019 FT | 2023-Mar-27 | 17.1 LD | 28.2 | 93 |
| 2022 YK4 | 2023-Mar-29 | 11.9 LD | 2.3 | 25 |
| 2023 FR1 | 2023-Mar-30 | 19 LD | 7.9 | 42 |
| 2023 EK2 | 2023-Mar-30 | 12.9 LD | 15.4 | 89 |
| 2017 SE12 | 2023-Mar-30 | 5.2 LD | 8.4 | 15 |
| 2016 GH1 | 2023-Mar-30 | 7.7 LD | 5.8 | 11 |
| 2022 GO3 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17 LD | 11.6 | 15 |
| 2021 GN1 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17.7 LD | 14.2 | 18 |
| 2023 FM | 2023-Apr-06 | 7.9 LD | 15.9 | 170 |
| 2018 FD | 2023-Apr-07 | 17.9 LD | 8.2 | 47 |
| 2023 FT1 | 2023-Apr-10 | 19.6 LD | 6.6 | 31 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
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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