Spotless Days Current Stretch: 0 days 2022 total: 0 days (0%) 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 05 Jan 2022
Thermosphere Climate Index today: 7.95x1010W Cool Max: 49.4x1010 W Hot (10/1957) Min: 2.05x1010 W Cold (02/2009) explanation | more data:gfx, txt Updated 05 Jan 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: +8.7% High 48-hr change: +1.1% Max: +11.7% Very High (12/2009) Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991) explanation |more data Updated 05 Jan 2022 @ 1700 UT
Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 0 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 4.9 nT Bz: 3.2 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 05 Jan 22
Solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole could graze Earth on Jan. 8-9. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent CloudsThe southern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds has begun. NASA's AIM spacecraft detected the first electric-blue puffs over Antarctica on Dec. 14th.
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 Jan 05 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
20 %
20 %
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022
What's up in space
Lights Over Lapland has a full catalogue of exciting adventures in Abisko National Park, Sweden! Check out our daytime and evening activities and book your adventure!
SOLAR WIND, INCOMING: A stream of solar wind is approaching Earth. ETA: Jan. 8-9. The gaseous material is flowing from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Arctic auroras are likely when the solar wind arrives. Aurora alerts:SMS Text.
VENUS HAS TURNED INTO A RAINBOW: Like the Moon, Venus has phases, and right now it is a crescent. Moreover, it is a rainbow crescent. Meiying Lee photographed the phenomenon from Hsinchu, Taiwan:
"I video recorded the tiny crescent sinking into the clouds at sunset," says Lee. "The rainbow colors were quite distinct."
What's happening? Earth's atmosphere acts like a prism, splitting the light of Venus into primary colors. A tiny red Venus, blue Venus and green Venus are moving through the sky in tandem--a celestial rainbow.
Eliot Herman photohraphed the colorful arc last night in Tucson, Arizona:
"There was a narrow window of time just after sunset when Venus was visible and the sun was safely behind the mountains south of Tucson," says Herman. "That's when I took the shot."
Soon, the sun and Venus will be too close together for sunset shots. On Saturday, Jan. 8th, Venus is going to pass almost directly between Earth and the sun--an event astronomers call "inferior conjunction." At that time the separation will be no more than 5 degrees, and Venus will be surrounded by daytime blue.
Anthony J. Cook, recently retired from the Griffith Observatory, offers these daytime observing tips: "Find a tall building to shade your telescope at noon. This should make finding and observing Venus relatively easy and safe to do from the northern hemisphere. Just be sure the telescope is entirely inside the building's shadow and observe within 15 minutes of local noon."
Please be careful! Any sunlight straying into unshadowed optics can cause potentially serious eye damage.
AN ECSTATIC SOLAR ECLIPSE: One month ago today, there was a solar eclipse over Antarctica. The penguins enjoyed it. Annie Schmidt, Antarctica Program Director for Point Blue Conservation Science, sends this picture from the Adélie penguin colony on Cape Crozier:
"I caught an Adélie penguin performing an 'Ecstatic Vocalization' in front of the eclipse," explains Schmidt. "The Ecstatic Vocalization is a special display that males perform to claim their territory and advertise their condition."
"We observed the eclipse from Cape Crozier, one of the largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world," she continues. "Researchers from Point Blue have been studying this colony for more than 25 years. We're learning how climate change may affect penguin nesting habitat and how individuals vary in their response to these changes."
"While this penguin was posing nicely in front of the eclipse, another research team collected space weather measurements near McMurdo, South Pole," says Schmidt. "All the work was conducted with funding from the National Science Foundation and support from the US Antarctic Program."
MR SPOCK IN THE STRATOSPHERE (COLLECTOR'S ITEM): He's back by popular demand: Mr. Spock Bobblehead. On Dec. 12, 2021, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew the green-blooded science officer to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. At the apex of the flight he was 107,341 ft high:
You can have it for $170.10 (the serial number of the Enterprise divided by 10). The bobblehead is made of high-quality resin and hand-painted. It cannot be purchased from Amazon; this rare collector's item is available only from the Earth to Sky Store.
The students are selling Mr. Spock bobbleheads to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing Spock in flight and telling the story of his journey to the edge of space and back.
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 Jan 05, 2022, the network reported 18 fireballs. (12 sporadics, 5 Quadrantids, 1 alpha Hydrid)
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 January 5, 2022 there were 2246 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. 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 (Nov. 2021): Our balloons have just measured a sudden drop in atmospheric radiation. It happened during the strong geomagnetic storms of Nov. 3-4, 2021. Here are the data:
This is called a "Forbush decrease," named after American physicist Scott Forbush who studied cosmic rays in the early 20th century. It happens when a CME from the sun sweeps past Earth and literally pushes cosmic rays away from our planet. Radiation from deep space that would normally pepper Earth's upper atmosphere is briefly wiped out.
We have measured Forbush decreases before. For example, here's one from Sept. 2014. The Forbush Decrease of Nov. 3-4, 2021, was the deepest in the history of our 7-year atmospheric monitoring program. Radiation levels in the stratosphere over California dropped nearly 20%, more than doubling the previous record from our dataset.
En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes, so we can sample radiation where planes fly. This plot shows how the Forbush decrease was restricted to the stratosphere; it did not affect lower levels of the atmosphere:
The dose rates shown above are expressed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. The higher you fly, the more radiation you will absorb.
.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can seed clouds, 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. Somewhat more controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) link 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 first graph ("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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