Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio. | | |
INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES: As a group of new sunspots emerges over the sun's southeastern limb, the sunspot number is rising and the chance of flares is increasing with it. Solar activity is still low on Saturday, June 15th, but the days ahead could be more lively. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
SPACE WEATHER BALLOON LAUNCH: Yesterday, high school students in Bishop, California, launched another "space weather balloon." Its mission: To investigate the effect of solar flares and radiation storms on Earth's ozone layer. The group's mentor, Dr. Tony Phillips, photographed the balloon moments before launch from their "Edge of Space Port" in the Sierra Nevada mountains:
The balloon's payload carried two cameras, an ozone sensor, a cryogenic thermometer, and a GPS altimeter to an altitude of 110,000 feet above Earth's surface. All of the payload's core space weather instrumentation was built by the students themselves. After the balloon popped, as planned, the payload parachuted back to Earth, landing near the ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California's White Mountains. A recovery team has already recovered the payload, and students are inspecting the data now.
The students launched on June 14th, a period of low solar activity, because they wanted to compare quiet sun data with a data set they collected on May 22nd during a strong solar radiation storm. Stay tuned for their results!
Sponsor a space weather balloon: Would you like to sponsor a flight? The students, who call themselves Earth to Sky Calculus, offer a service for sponsors called "Edge of Space Advertising." Just yesterday they flew an ad for Interpret America (flight photo), which paid for the helium in the balloon. The students have also flown banners, cards, cows, running shoes, presidents and other items. If there's something you'd like to fly, please contact Dr. Tony Phillips for rates and details.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SUN HALO: Sky watchers, the next time you are outside on a bright sunny day and cirrus clouds drift across the sun, find a flower and hold it up. You might see something like this:
"Yesterday, my wife and I were at an Iris flower farm in traverse city, Michigan, with 6 acres of awsome colored flowers in prime bloom," says photographer Jim Fantozzi. "I noticed the ring around the sun, so I had my wife block the sun with an iris flower and--wow--it came out pretty cool."
The ring of light is a 22-degree sun halo caused by ice crystals in the clouds. Up where cirrus clouds form, 5 to 10 km high, the air temperature is always cold enough for ice crystals, which means sun halos may be seen at any time of year. Irises, however, prefer spring. In other seasons, you might have to cover the sun with something else such as a finger or a five-year old. Browse the sun halo gallery for more ideas:
Realtime Sun Halo Photo Gallery
SOLAR CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER: If you've been looking for Jupiter, stop. The glare could hurt your eyes. Jupiter is approaching the sun for an extremely tight conjunction. Today they are only 3.5 degrees apart:
On June 19th, Jupiter will pass directly behind the solar disk, less than a quarter of a degree from disk center. It's a rare total eclipse of Jupiter by the sun. Because of the glare, the event is invisible to human eyes. Coronagraphs, however, block the glare and monitor Jupiter's approach. Join SOHO for a ringside seat.
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery