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GEOMAGNETIC STORMS LIKELY TODAY: NOAA forecasters say there is a 60% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 8th as Earth moves into a fast-moving stream of solar wind. Isolated periods of G2-class storming are possible as well. The gaseous stream is flowing from a wide hole in the sun's atmosphere, and our planet is expected to remain inside it for at least another 24 hours. Free: Aurora Alerts.
NORTHERN LIGHTS INVADE THE USA: Space weather forecasters predicted a minor geomagnetic storm on Nov. 7th. It turned out to be much stronger. As night fell across North America, auroras spilled across the Canadian border into more than a dozen US states. Jack Webb photographed these red columns towering over Wapiti, Wyoming:
"That's a 10,500 ft (3200 m) mountain in the foreground," says Webb. "At this latitude (+44 N) it takes a pretty good geomagnetic storm to get above it."
Auroras were sighted in Alaska, Vermont, New York, Wyoming, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and--believe it or not--Nebraska:
"This was predicted to be a G1-class storm, but I think it went crazier," says photographer Jingpeng Liu of Prague, Nebraska (lat. +41 N). "Immediately after sunset I noticed a red-ish glow above the horizon and it turned out to be strong auroras. What a treat to central Nebraska!"
What made this display so strong? A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 7th. The leading edge of the stream contained a co-rotating interaction region (CIR). CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving streams of solar wind; they hold density gradients and strong magnetic fields that do an extra-good job sparking auroras. The arrival of the CIR sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm and a surprisingly good show. Free: Aurora Alerts.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
SOLAR ECLIPSE CRYSTAL PYRAMID: On Aug. 21, 2017, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. The armada of balloons soared into the stratosphere, touching the shadow of the Moon more than 100,000 feet above Earth's surface. As a fundraiser, one of the balloons carried this pyramid, and you can have it for $139.95:
With the sun, Earth, and Moon perfectly aligned, the faces of the 5-sided crystal caught the reflection of the eclipsed sun while wrapped in the space-cold shadow of our planet's gray cratered companion. Watch the video! The payload capsule contained more crystals just like it.
Each pyramid comes with a unique gift card showing the crystal floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere and passing through the Moon's shadow. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
WHITE SATIN AURORAS: A solar wind stream engulfed Earth during the early hours of Nov. 7th, igniting a display of Northern Lights over Alaska. Todd Salat sends this picture from the Kenai Mountains in south-central Alaska:
"The auroras made beautiful music above Portage Lake on November 7th," says Salat. "During my aurora hunt I was playing a Moody Blues CD and their classic song 'Nights in White Satin' was the perfect soundtrack with white satin snow and powerful auroras that kept coming through in huge waves for hours on end."
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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. 8, 2017, the network reported 18 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 1 Northern Taurid, 1 November I Draconid)
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 8, 2017 there were 1853 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2017 VD | 2017-Nov-02 | 9.9 LD | 27.5 | 230 |
2017 UL44 | 2017-Nov-03 | 13.3 LD | 15.4 | 64 |
2017 VE | 2017-Nov-04 | 0.9 LD | 14.1 | 17 |
2017 UX42 | 2017-Nov-05 | 10.5 LD | 2.6 | 7 |
2017 US7 | 2017-Nov-05 | 7.1 LD | 8.8 | 13 |
2017 UJ7 | 2017-Nov-05 | 16.8 LD | 13 | 28 |
2017 UJ43 | 2017-Nov-05 | 4.6 LD | 7.3 | 10 |
2013 BD74 | 2017-Nov-06 | 10.6 LD | 9 | 51 |
2017 TZ3 | 2017-Nov-09 | 10.3 LD | 8.7 | 39 |
2017 VC | 2017-Nov-10 | 9.9 LD | 7.3 | 91 |
444584 | 2017-Nov-17 | 8.7 LD | 14.8 | 324 |
2008 WM61 | 2017-Dec-03 | 3.8 LD | 4.7 | 16 |
2015 XX169 | 2017-Dec-14 | 9.7 LD | 6.3 | 11 |
2011 YD29 | 2017-Dec-19 | 17.6 LD | 7.7 | 20 |
2006 XY | 2017-Dec-20 | 6.5 LD | 5 | 56 |
2017 TS3 | 2017-Dec-22 | 18.2 LD | 10.2 | 131 |
418849 | 2017-Dec-22 | 15.3 LD | 17.4 | 257 |
2015 YQ1 | 2017-Dec-22 | 17.3 LD | 11.1 | 9 |
2017 QL33 | 2017-Dec-30 | 13.3 LD | 8.2 | 191 |
2015 RT1 | 2018-Jan-02 | 19.7 LD | 9 | 30 |
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 |
Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here:
This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. 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. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California.
What is this all about? Approximately 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 radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015:
Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.
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.
The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-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 Reneger 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. |
| 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 |
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