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NO SUNSPOTS, NO PROBLEM: A minor G1-class geomagnetic storm is underway on Oct. 15th. This marks the 5th consecutive day that polar geomagnetic storms have been observed--a remarkable string considering that there are NO SUNSPOTS on the face of the sun. It just goes to show that blank suns can indeed produce stormy space weather. Arctic sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as the solar wind continues to blow faster than 550 km/s. Free: Aurora Alerts.
MEANWHILE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE... The last five days of geomagnetic storming have included episodes of moderately-strong activity around both of Earth's poles. On Oct. 12th, the aurora australis became so bright that Layton Findlater saw them from Invercargill, New Zealand:
"The auroras were just visible at dusk," says Findlater. "As the night grew darker, the colour intensified, then it just went nuts. There were naked-eye visible rays dancing across the sky. It was a short display, but what a beauty it was."
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
A NEW THREAT TO THE OZONE LAYER: High above Earth, more than 20 miles above sea level, a diaphanous layer of ozone surrounds our planet, absorbing energetic ultraviolet rays from the sun. It is, essentially, sunscreen for planet Earth. Without the ozone layer, we would be bathed in dangerous radiation on a daily basis.
For more than 30 years, the Montreal Protocol has regulated ozone-destroying chemicals, allowing Earth's ozone holes to heal and shrink. But there's trouble on the horizon. An international team of researchers led by David Oram of the University of East Anglia has found an unexpected, growing danger to the ozone layer from substances not regulated by the treaty.
Above: The Antarctic ozone hole in Sept. 2016. [more]
The danger comes from a class of chemicals known as "chlorocarbons." Dichloromethane is an example. It is used in paint stripping, agricultural fumigation, and the production of pharmaceuticals. Over the past decade dichloromethane became approximately 60% more abundant. "This was a major surprise to the scientific community and we were keen to discover the cause of this sudden increase," says Oram.
Developing economies in East Asia appear to be the source. "Our estimates suggest that China may be responsible for around 50-60% of current global emissions [of dichloromethane], with other Asian countries, including India, likely to be significant emitters as well," says Oram.
Dichloromethane and similar chemicals were not regulated by the Montreal protocol because they were thought to be too short-lived to reach the ozone layer. However, East Asia has a special pattern of circulation that can push these chemicals skyward, very rapidly. It's a two-step process: Cold-air surges in East Asia quickly carry industrial pollution into the tropics. "It is here that air is most likely to be uplifted into the stratosphere (where ozone is located)," says co-author Matt Ashfold of the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.
Read the original research in the journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: "A growing threat to the ozone layer from short-lived anthropogenic chlorocarbons" by Oram et al.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
PYRAMID FLIES THROUGH SOLAR STORM: On Sept. 10, 2017, giant sunspot AR2673 exploded, producing an X8-class solar flare. The powerful blast accelerated a stream of electrons and protons toward Earth. By the time the particles arrived, this crystal pyramid was waiting for them at the top of Earth's atmosphere:
What was it doing up there? It hitched a ride onboard a space weather balloon, launched by the students of Earth to Sky Calculus to measure radiation from the flare. In addition to the pyramid (flown for fundraising), the balloon's payload carried an array of X-ray/gamma-ray detectors, cameras, temperature/pressure sensors, GPS altimeters and, of course, extra pyramids.
You can have one for $119.95. Each pyramid comes with a unique gift card showing the crystal floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. 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
Realtime Aurora 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 Oct. 15, 2017, the network reported 23 fireballs.
(18 sporadics, 2 October Ursae Majorids, 1 Orionid, 1 Southern Taurid, 1 lambda 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 October 15, 2017 there were 1844 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2017 SN21 | 2017-Oct-10 | 9 LD | 7.6 | 22 |
2017 TH4 | 2017-Oct-10 | 6.7 LD | 13.9 | 48 |
2017 SB20 | 2017-Oct-11 | 9 LD | 7.1 | 38 |
2017 TJ2 | 2017-Oct-11 | 11.2 LD | 11.7 | 38 |
2017 RV1 | 2017-Oct-12 | 17.8 LD | 10.9 | 346 |
2012 TC4 | 2017-Oct-12 | 0.1 LD | 7.6 | 16 |
2017 TT1 | 2017-Oct-13 | 2.5 LD | 10.7 | 13 |
2017 TK2 | 2017-Oct-13 | 4.9 LD | 11.6 | 25 |
2017 TU1 | 2017-Oct-13 | 5.2 LD | 10.4 | 21 |
2005 TE49 | 2017-Oct-13 | 8.5 LD | 11.2 | 16 |
2017 TJ4 | 2017-Oct-13 | 10.2 LD | 7.2 | 36 |
2017 TV1 | 2017-Oct-14 | 5.6 LD | 10.4 | 20 |
2013 UM9 | 2017-Oct-15 | 17 LD | 7.8 | 39 |
2017 TK4 | 2017-Oct-15 | 4.2 LD | 4.2 | 11 |
2017 TU3 | 2017-Oct-17 | 8.2 LD | 12 | 43 |
2006 TU7 | 2017-Oct-18 | 18.7 LD | 13.3 | 148 |
2017 TG2 | 2017-Oct-19 | 19.9 LD | 19.2 | 166 |
2017 SY20 | 2017-Oct-20 | 18.9 LD | 7.2 | 51 |
2017 TO2 | 2017-Oct-20 | 13.9 LD | 13.7 | 81 |
2017 SH14 | 2017-Oct-20 | 15.4 LD | 6.9 | 45 |
2017 TG4 | 2017-Oct-21 | 4.8 LD | 11.4 | 51 |
171576 | 2017-Oct-22 | 5.8 LD | 21.2 | 677 |
2017 TQ4 | 2017-Oct-22 | 11.2 LD | 11 | 39 |
2017 TL4 | 2017-Oct-25 | 14.7 LD | 11.4 | 49 |
2003 UV11 | 2017-Oct-31 | 15 LD | 24.5 | 447 |
2017 TZ3 | 2017-Nov-09 | 10.4 LD | 8.7 | 33 |
444584 | 2017-Nov-17 | 8.7 LD | 14.8 | 324 |
2008 WM61 | 2017-Dec-03 | 3.8 LD | 4.7 | 16 |
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 |
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| 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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