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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G1): A geomagnetic storm is possible on April 14th when two minor CMEs are expected to graze Earth's magnetic field. The storm clouds were hurled toward Earth by magnetic filament eruptions on April 11th and 12th. Neither CME is particularly potent, but their combined effect could cause a G1-class geomagnetic storm with high-latitude auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
A RED BLOB IN THE NIGHT SKY: This is starting to happen a lot in the state of Texas. On April 10th, around 2:14 in the morning, amateur astronomer Abdur Anwar looked up from Big Bend National Park and saw a glowing red blob glide across the starry sky. "I photographed it using my Google Pixel 6a phone in night mode," he says.
"Is this a new aurora phenomenon?" he asks.
No, it's SpaceX.
About 90 minutes before the red blob appeared, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit (Starlink Group 6-48). After the satellites were deployed, the rocket's second stage executed a de-orbit burn, creating the nearly-spherical red light.
It's not the first time sky watchers have noticed this phenomenon. "We are seeing 2 to 5 of them each month," reports Stephen Hummel of the McDonald Observatory in Texas, who photographed a spectacular example last November.
The red glow is created by a chemical reaction. De-orbiting Falcon 9 rocket engines spray water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the upper atmosphere--as much as 400 lbs of exhaust gasses. A complicated series of charge exchange reactions between these molecules and O+ atoms produces red light at a wavelength of 6300 Å–coincidentally, the same color as red auroras.
Above: The launch of Starlink 6-48 ninety minutes before the red blob appeared over Texas.
Texas seems to be a great place to observe the phenomenon; most sightings have come from there or neighboring states. Texas is favored because, for Starlink missions launched from Florida, it's approximately where a de-orbit burn will splash the rocket's second stage safely into the South Atlantic. The burns happen about 90 minutes after launch--just when Anwar saw the blob.
Would you like to see one? Check the SpaceX schedule for night launches, then look at the sky 90 minutes after liftoff. Human eyes are not very sensitive to the 6300 Å wavelength of the red glow, but cameras have no such trouble. Take a short nighttime exposure and submit your images here.
more images: from Madison J Post near Animas, NM
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18K GOLD TOTAL ECLIPSE PENDANT: This pendant has touched the shadow of the Moon. On April 8, 2024, during a total eclipse of the sun in Texas, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Floating more than 118,110 feet high, the locket spent 3 minutes and 45 seconds wrapped in lunar shadow:
You can have it for $199.95. The 18K gold-plated locket is inscribed with the words "I love you to the Moon and back," and opens to hold a personal photo or other small item. It comes with a greeting card showing the locket in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space during the total eclipse.
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 Apr 13, 2024, the network reported 2 fireballs.
(2 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 April 14, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2020 BP13 | 2024-Apr-09 | 15.2 LD | 6.8 | 209 |
2024 GW4 | 2024-Apr-09 | 0.4 LD | 12.1 | 6 |
2024 GV2 | 2024-Apr-09 | 0.3 LD | 4.7 | 5 |
2024 GQ1 | 2024-Apr-09 | 1.4 LD | 13.4 | 7 |
2024 GY4 | 2024-Apr-09 | 0.3 LD | 9.3 | 4 |
2024 GX3 | 2024-Apr-10 | 0.2 LD | 10.2 | 4 |
2024 GJ5 | 2024-Apr-10 | 7.4 LD | 8.3 | 15 |
2024 FT2 | 2024-Apr-10 | 11.8 LD | 11.9 | 33 |
2024 GP5 | 2024-Apr-11 | 17.4 LD | 19.7 | 39 |
2024 GJ2 | 2024-Apr-11 | 0 LD | 14.4 | 3 |
2024 GU3 | 2024-Apr-11 | 9.6 LD | 7.7 | 25 |
2024 GA2 | 2024-Apr-12 | 14.4 LD | 13.9 | 30 |
2021 RJ19 | 2024-Apr-12 | 19.6 LD | 11.4 | 25 |
2024 FX3 | 2024-Apr-12 | 9.5 LD | 11.7 | 28 |
2021 GQ5 | 2024-Apr-13 | 8.8 LD | 7.5 | 7 |
2024 GT2 | 2024-Apr-13 | 2.3 LD | 6.8 | 12 |
2024 GV3 | 2024-Apr-13 | 1.3 LD | 10.9 | 7 |
2024 FP3 | 2024-Apr-13 | 2.7 LD | 6.3 | 22 |
2024 GE3 | 2024-Apr-13 | 10 LD | 7.3 | 22 |
2024 GA1 | 2024-Apr-14 | 9.5 LD | 18.1 | 54 |
2024 GB3 | 2024-Apr-14 | 19.6 LD | 17.1 | 46 |
2023 FN13 | 2024-Apr-14 | 3.3 LD | 4.9 | 13 |
2022 UO1 | 2024-Apr-14 | 16.7 LD | 14 | 33 |
2024 GW | 2024-Apr-15 | 11.2 LD | 8.7 | 26 |
2024 GL2 | 2024-Apr-15 | 10.9 LD | 8.6 | 13 |
2024 GO1 | 2024-Apr-15 | 8.5 LD | 9.1 | 13 |
517681 | 2024-Apr-15 | 18.4 LD | 14.2 | 589 |
439437 | 2024-Apr-15 | 8.5 LD | 16.5 | 609 |
2024 FJ4 | 2024-Apr-15 | 14.3 LD | 9.5 | 32 |
2024 GN2 | 2024-Apr-16 | 1.2 LD | 18.5 | 19 |
2024 GF3 | 2024-Apr-16 | 13.9 LD | 12.9 | 26 |
2024 GS5 | 2024-Apr-16 | 1.8 LD | 18.3 | 23 |
2024 GM1 | 2024-Apr-17 | 3.5 LD | 10.4 | 27 |
2024 GF5 | 2024-Apr-17 | 9.7 LD | 7.4 | 13 |
2024 FF4 | 2024-Apr-18 | 16.1 LD | 13 | 51 |
2023 HU3 | 2024-Apr-18 | 15.9 LD | 19.1 | 35 |
2024 GL5 | 2024-Apr-18 | 16.7 LD | 11.7 | 25 |
2024 FU4 | 2024-Apr-19 | 19.2 LD | 7.5 | 30 |
2021 JW2 | 2024-Apr-19 | 1.6 LD | 5.1 | 11 |
2017 SA20 | 2024-Apr-19 | 3.8 LD | 6.2 | 8 |
2024 FT4 | 2024-Apr-19 | 19.3 LD | 5.2 | 21 |
2024 GD5 | 2024-Apr-20 | 13.8 LD | 4.5 | 15 |
2024 GM | 2024-Apr-21 | 18.7 LD | 10.8 | 90 |
2024 GW3 | 2024-Apr-21 | 19.5 LD | 13.3 | 39 |
2021 VH2 | 2024-Apr-25 | 9.3 LD | 2.7 | 6 |
2024 FG5 | 2024-Apr-26 | 12.5 LD | 9.1 | 35 |
2024 GR1 | 2024-Apr-27 | 19.6 LD | 7.2 | 51 |
2024 GS4 | 2024-Apr-28 | 10.6 LD | 12.8 | 33 |
2024 GK5 | 2024-Apr-29 | 12.9 LD | 5.2 | 41 |
2021 GD3 | 2024-Apr-30 | 11.4 LD | 3.5 | 14 |
2022 TN1 | 2024-Apr-30 | 18.6 LD | 17.7 | 295 |
2022 AA5 | 2024-May-02 | 12 LD | 8.9 | 67 |
2024 FR5 | 2024-May-05 | 4.9 LD | 5.2 | 50 |
2021 JG9 | 2024-May-10 | 16.9 LD | 16.1 | 32 |
2016 FT14 | 2024-May-10 | 19.9 LD | 5.9 | 39 |
2015 KJ19 | 2024-May-14 | 15.8 LD | 23.1 | 112 |
2014 WF6 | 2024-May-14 | 7.2 LD | 18.9 | 47 |
2021 JN10 | 2024-May-14 | 17.5 LD | 13.2 | 33 |
2021 JJ | 2024-May-15 | 17.2 LD | 5.8 | 28 |
2022 WN2 | 2024-May-17 | 13.7 LD | 5.5 | 6 |
2019 VB5 | 2024-May-21 | 7.8 LD | 6.3 | 2 |
2008 LD | 2024-May-28 | 7.7 LD | 4.5 | 6 |
2021 LV | 2024-May-29 | 12 LD | 15.5 | 9 |
1998 KY26 | 2024-Jun-01 | 12 LD | 5.3 | 27 |
2016 JC6 | 2024-Jun-01 | 19.9 LD | 7.1 | 188 |
2008 YN2 | 2024-Jun-05 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 20 |
2021 LW3 | 2024-Jun-06 | 9.7 LD | 9.8 | 86 |
2024 CR9 | 2024-Jun-11 | 19.2 LD | 7.4 | 435 |
2022 XC1 | 2024-Jun-12 | 16.5 LD | 6.5 | 21 |
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. See also, all satellite statistics. |
| 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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