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SURPRISE: SOME RED AURORAS ARE *NOT* AURORAS: The biggest geomagnetic storm in years erupted this month when a Cannibal CME slammed into Earth's magnetic field. Auroras spread as far south as California and New Mexico. Upon closer inspection, however, not all of the lights were auroras. Some were "SARs."
SARs are pure red arcs of light that ripple across the sky during strong geomagnetic storms. Here's an example from Finland in 2018:
"The SAR was visible to the naked eye for nearly 30 minutes and, after fading a bit, remained visible to my camera for another hour and a half," recalls photographer Matti Helin.
On Nov 4, 2021, Earth experienced a veritable SAR storm. "We photographed SARs as far south as the McDonald Observatory in Texas," reports Jeff Baumgardner of Boston University's Center for Space Physics. "The bands of light swept over our cameras near Boston, then headed south. We knew something special was going on."
SARs look like auroras, but they not the same. Auroras appear when charged particles rain down from space, hitting the atmosphere and causing it to glow like the picture tube of an old color TV. SARs form differently. They are a sign of heat energy leaking into the upper atmosphere from Earth's ring current system.
During the storm on Nov. 4th, an all-sky camera in Capital Reef, Utah, caught a bright one. Play the movie and watch what happens at the 18-second mark:
"It is pretty unusual to see an SAR at this low latitude," says Asti Bhatt of SRI International. Bhatt operates MANGO, a continent-spanning network of cameras that monitors the sky for unusual phenomena like SARs.
SARs were discovered in 1956 at the beginning of the Space Age. Researchers didn't know what they were and unwittingly gave them a misleading name: "Stable Auroral Red arcs" or SARs. In fact, SARs are neither stable nor auroras.
"Our group has observed scores of SARs over the last three solar cycles," says Baumgardner. "In 2015 we published a paper describing them. We found that SARs are 'stable' only when compared to very active auroras. When you watch an SAR for an hour or so, it can be quite dynamic."
Space physicists are keen on SARs because they are linked to Earth's ring current--a donut-shaped circuit carrying millions of amps around our planet. The ring current skims the orbits of geosynchronous satellites and plays a huge role in determining the severity of geomagnetic storms. Earth is the only rocky planet in our Solar System that has one.
Above: SARs photographed by the Dynamics Explorer-1 satellite in 1982. More
SARs are among the reddest things in the sky, with a monochromatic glow at 6300 Å that comes from atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere. Unfortunately, the human eye is relatively insensitive to light at this wavelength. SARs are usually so faint that no one notices when they pass overhead. Cameras catch them easily, though. Pro tip for photographers: Use a 6300 Å filter.
"At the peak of a solar cycle we typically photograph 30 SARs per year near Boston," says Baumgardner. "We hope this is a start of an active solar cycle with lots more SAR arcs!"
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.
Carried aloft by giant helium balloons, these unique gifts have flown above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out.
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Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather 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 Nov 23, 2021, the network reported 25 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 3 Leonids, 3 northern Taurids, 2 alpha Monocerotids, 1 Nov. omega Orionid)
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 November 23, 2021 there were 2239 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2021 VK10 | 2021-Nov-18 | 5.9 LD | 14.3 | 22 |
2021 VC9 | 2021-Nov-19 | 7 LD | 7.3 | 14 |
2021 VW22 | 2021-Nov-19 | 13.6 LD | 8.5 | 16 |
2021 VJ11 | 2021-Nov-19 | 6.8 LD | 10.6 | 25 |
2021 VZ22 | 2021-Nov-19 | 1.1 LD | 9.6 | 8 |
2021 VR | 2021-Nov-19 | 15.5 LD | 13.3 | 73 |
2016 JG12 | 2021-Nov-20 | 14.4 LD | 7.5 | 111 |
2021 TR15 | 2021-Nov-20 | 11.9 LD | 7 | 42 |
2021 VP10 | 2021-Nov-20 | 2 LD | 8.3 | 9 |
2021 KH2 | 2021-Nov-21 | 19.3 LD | 6.5 | 31 |
2021 VW5 | 2021-Nov-21 | 15.6 LD | 3.4 | 17 |
3361 | 2021-Nov-21 | 15.1 LD | 8.1 | 504 |
2021 VQ26 | 2021-Nov-22 | 4.6 LD | 10.4 | 48 |
2021 VL16 | 2021-Nov-23 | 14.3 LD | 8.4 | 19 |
2021 WC | 2021-Nov-24 | 14.3 LD | 7 | 53 |
2014 WF201 | 2021-Nov-24 | 13.2 LD | 5.5 | 27 |
2021 VR4 | 2021-Nov-25 | 2.1 LD | 7.7 | 18 |
2009 WB105 | 2021-Nov-25 | 15.1 LD | 18.9 | 71 |
2021 VQ27 | 2021-Nov-25 | 2.7 LD | 10.2 | 15 |
2021 VF11 | 2021-Nov-25 | 18.6 LD | 1.3 | 14 |
2019 BB5 | 2021-Nov-25 | 18.8 LD | 8.3 | 16 |
2021 VM | 2021-Nov-27 | 9.4 LD | 8.9 | 30 |
2021 VO12 | 2021-Nov-28 | 7.3 LD | 13.5 | 51 |
1994 WR12 | 2021-Nov-29 | 16.1 LD | 8.8 | 123 |
2021 UP4 | 2021-Dec-04 | 13.9 LD | 8.3 | 53 |
2021 VX7 | 2021-Dec-06 | 14.8 LD | 6.1 | 41 |
4660 | 2021-Dec-11 | 10.3 LD | 6.6 | 759 |
2019 XQ1 | 2021-Dec-13 | 14.1 LD | 9.1 | 30 |
2021 VT6 | 2021-Dec-14 | 7.7 LD | 6.9 | 55 |
2004 YC | 2021-Dec-15 | 18.4 LD | 8.1 | 27 |
163899 | 2021-Dec-17 | 14.2 LD | 5.6 | 1093 |
2021 LX3 | 2021-Dec-18 | 19.7 LD | 6.5 | 124 |
2016 YY10 | 2021-Dec-21 | 11.3 LD | 9.2 | 23 |
2017 XQ60 | 2021-Dec-21 | 13.7 LD | 15.7 | 47 |
2016 TR54 | 2021-Dec-24 | 16.9 LD | 15.5 | 135 |
2018 AH | 2021-Dec-27 | 11.9 LD | 12.7 | 112 |
2017 AE3 | 2021-Dec-29 | 9.3 LD | 19.1 | 155 |
2014 YE15 | 2022-Jan-06 | 19.3 LD | 6.4 | 8 |
2020 AP1 | 2022-Jan-07 | 4.6 LD | 5.7 | 4 |
2013 YD48 | 2022-Jan-11 | 14.6 LD | 14.8 | 107 |
2021 BA | 2022-Jan-18 | 9.8 LD | 9.1 | 22 |
7482 | 2022-Jan-18 | 5.2 LD | 19.6 | 1732 |
2018 PN22 | 2022-Jan-21 | 11.4 LD | 2.7 | 11 |
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 6 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results: Our most recent flight on June 25, 2021, confirms a trend of decreasing cosmic radiation:
Cosmic ray dose rates peaked in late 2019, and have been slowly declining ever since. This makes perfect sense. Solar Minimum was in late 2019. During Solar Minimum the sun's magnetic field weakens, allowing more cosmic rays into the solar system. We expect dose rate to be highest at that time.
Now that Solar Minimum has passed, the sun is waking up again. Solar magnetic fields are strengthening, providing a stiffer barrier to cosmic rays trying to enter the solar system. The decline of cosmic radiation above California is a sign that new Solar Cycle 25 is gaining strength.
.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) llink cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes:
In this plot, dose rates are expessed 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.
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.
| 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 |
| 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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