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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storms could happen on March 20-21 due to a possible glancing blow from an incoming CME. The CME was hurled into space on March 17th by the eruption of a magnetic filament containing dark plasma. Because of the "Russell-McPherron effect," even a weak impact around the equinox could spark a good display of high latitude auroras,. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
APPROACHING SUNSPOTS: A group of large sunspots is emerging over the sun's southwestern limb. In Castano Primo, Italy, amateur astronomer Alessandro Gambaro targeted the region with his solar telescope and photographed multiple dark cores larger than Earth:
So far these sunspots are crackling with only minor C-class solar flares, but they appear capable of larger explosions. In fact, this could be the sunspot group that produced an "Extremely Rare" superfast CME last week while it was still on the farside of the sun. If so, a potent active region is moving into Earth's strike zone. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
more images: from Pepe Manteca of Begues, Catalunya, Spain
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SOLAR TORNADO: For much of the past week, astronomers have been watching a collossal "solar tornado" dance near the sun's North Pole. "This thing was twisting and growing for 3 days," says Apollo Lasky of Naperville, Illinois, who made the following movie using images from SDO
"I've never seen anything like it in all my years of watching the sun," he says. "It never stops--amazing!"
Unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are shaped by wind, tornadoes on the sun are controlled by magnetism. Solar magnetic fields twist in a furious spiral, dragging clouds of plasma around with them.
This particular twister finally overtorqued itself. On March 18th it spun out and hurled a cloud of magnetized gas into space. The show is over! Ejecta from the unraveling is flying up from the sun's North Pole and will not hit Earth.
more images: from Efrain Morales Rivera of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
ANOTHER DARK PLASMA ERUPTION: Warning: This post may give you a sense of déjà vu. On March 17th, a magnetic filament filled with dark plasma erupted from the southwestern quadrant of the sun:
This is almost identical to a dark plasma eruption last week. The March 11th blast threw a CME at our planet and sparked G2-class geomagnetic storms when it arrived 3 days later. Auroras were sighted in both hemispheres.
The March 17th eruption might do the same. NOAA forecasters say a CME is on the way and it could arrive on March 20th. Stay tuned for updates. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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RARE MR. SPOCK MUG: It's the logical way to wake up in the morning: Coffee in a rare Mr. Spock mug. This unique ceramic collector's item flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You cannot buy these mugs anywhere on the internet--not even Amazon. But you can have one from Earth to Sky Calculus for $170.10. That's the serial number of the Enterprise divided by 10. The mug comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again. It's a great gift for any Trekkie!
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 19 2023, the network reported 1 fireball.
(1 sporadic)
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 19, 2023 there were 2325 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 EA1 | 2023-Mar-14 | 15.2 LD | 15.2 | 33 |
| 2023 FZ | 2023-Mar-14 | 10.4 LD | 12.3 | 17 |
| 2023 CM | 2023-Mar-14 | 10.3 LD | 14 | 190 |
| 2023 EW | 2023-Mar-15 | 14.2 LD | 4.1 | 22 |
| 2023 FD | 2023-Mar-15 | 10.9 LD | 4 | 20 |
| 2023 FR | 2023-Mar-15 | 1.9 LD | 7 | 9 |
| 2023 FE | 2023-Mar-15 | 17.1 LD | 9.1 | 42 |
| 2023 ED1 | 2023-Mar-15 | 19.6 LD | 5 | 30 |
| 2023 DM | 2023-Mar-15 | 8.5 LD | 7.3 | 65 |
| 2023 FS | 2023-Mar-16 | 1.8 LD | 15.2 | 18 |
| 2023 EY | 2023-Mar-17 | 0.6 LD | 8.1 | 15 |
| 2018 UQ1 | 2023-Mar-17 | 10.7 LD | 11.7 | 143 |
| 2023 ES1 | 2023-Mar-17 | 5.1 LD | 8 | 10 |
| 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 |
| 2018 FE3 | 2023-Mar-21 | 10.1 LD | 5.4 | 13 |
| 2023 FT | 2023-Mar-22 | 13.4 LD | 10.8 | 36 |
| 2023 FG | 2023-Mar-23 | 1.8 LD | 10.8 | 11 |
| 2023 EO1 | 2023-Mar-23 | 6.9 LD | 21.1 | 46 |
| 2023 EF2 | 2023-Mar-23 | 10 LD | 14.2 | 26 |
| 2023 FA | 2023-Mar-23 | 3.1 LD | 8.7 | 19 |
| 2023 DZ2 | 2023-Mar-25 | 0.5 LD | 7.8 | 58 |
| 2023 DX2 | 2023-Mar-27 | 8.5 LD | 9 | 54 |
| 2019 FT | 2023-Mar-27 | 17.1 LD | 28.2 | 93 |
| 2022 YK4 | 2023-Mar-29 | 11.9 LD | 2.3 | 25 |
| 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 | 168 |
| 2018 FD | 2023-Apr-07 | 17.9 LD | 8.2 | 47 |
| 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 |
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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