Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that we now have TWO aurora webcams covering nearly a 200° view of Abisko National Park in Sweden! Watch the auroras dance live, all season long here. | | |
SPACE WEATHER FORECAST: NOAA forecasters say there is a 55% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on March 22nd when the solar wind currently blowing around Earth is expected to intensify. Arctic auroras are likely on the first nights of northern spring. Free: Aurora Alerts
SURPRISE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: On March 18th, a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field. Solar wind poured in, fueling a moderately strong (G2-class) geomagnetic storm. Ruslan Merzlyakov sends this picture from Mårup (Hjørring), Denmark:
"Yesterday's unexpected storm of Northern Lights was visible with the naked eye," says Merzlyakov. "For the first time in months, Lady Aurora visited Denmark!"
NOAA forecasters had said there was a slight chance of minor G1-class storms on March 18th. The actual storm was much more intense, spreading auroras to lower latitudes than expected. In Europe the display spilled all the way down to Germany. Chalk it up to the vernal equinox and the Russell-McPherron effect. More on this below! Free: Aurora Alerts
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
MAGNETIC CRACKS AND STORMS: For the past five days, Earth's magnetic field has been in a state of unrest as an unusually-wide stream of solar wind blows around our planet. Literally, the geomagnetic field has been shaking back and forth. This plot from Stuart Green's backyard magnetometer in Preston, UK, shows the unrest, highlighted by a G2-class geomagnetic storm on March 18th:
Blue squiggles in Green's chart represent changes in his local magnetic field caused by the buffeting of solar wind high overhead. "Magnetic activity has been relatively high since March 14th with several distinct periods of storminess," he says. "Magnetometers all around the world are registering this."
The speed and pressure of the solar wind are key factors in stirring up magnetic storms--but not the only factor. Even more important is the formation of cracks in Earth's magnetic field, which allow solar wind to penetrate. How do we know when cracks are forming? Green has prepared another plot to answer this question:
"I lined up NOAA solar wind data with my own magnetometer chart," he says. "Note the red curve in the solar wind data. Much of the magnetic unrest I've been recording correlates with negative Bz, when the magnetic field of the approaching solar wind tips south."
Indeed, that is exactly how cracks form. The magnetic field in the solar wind points south, partial cancelling Earth's north-pointing magnetic field. Solar wind pours in through the resulting weak point. These cracks tend to form most often during weeks around equinoxes--a phenomenon known as the "Russell-McPherron effect."
Note to auroraphiles: Keep an eye on Bz right here on Spaceweather.com. When it tips south (becomes negative), that is the best time to watch for Northern Lights.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
THESE PENDANTS HAVE TOUCHED SPACE: On Dec. 31, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload full of heart-shaped pendants to the stratosphere. Here's one 115,158 feet above the Sierras of central California:
You can have one for $119.95. These jewels make great birthday and anniversary gifts. Each glittering pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. Sales of this pendant support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
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 Mar. 19, 2018, the network reported 8 fireballs.
(8 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 March 19, 2018 there were 1882 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2018 EZ2 | 2018-Mar-14 | 0.6 LD | 9.5 | 18 |
2018 EU1 | 2018-Mar-14 | 13.5 LD | 11.8 | 16 |
2018 EU2 | 2018-Mar-14 | 10.1 LD | 11.3 | 19 |
2018 FT | 2018-Mar-14 | 7.5 LD | 17.1 | 28 |
2018 EH | 2018-Mar-15 | 9.2 LD | 11 | 49 |
2018 EB4 | 2018-Mar-16 | 1.5 LD | 12.9 | 29 |
2018 ET1 | 2018-Mar-18 | 4.4 LD | 6 | 19 |
2018 FE | 2018-Mar-18 | 3.9 LD | 12.1 | 8 |
2018 EC1 | 2018-Mar-18 | 12.6 LD | 8.7 | 21 |
2018 EV1 | 2018-Mar-22 | 7.8 LD | 11.3 | 29 |
2018 DH1 | 2018-Mar-27 | 9.2 LD | 14.4 | 224 |
2016 SR2 | 2018-Mar-28 | 18.7 LD | 7.3 | 20 |
2018 FB | 2018-Mar-29 | 4.9 LD | 8.5 | 65 |
2010 GD35 | 2018-Mar-31 | 15.5 LD | 11.6 | 45 |
2018 EM4 | 2018-Apr-01 | 6.2 LD | 6.2 | 29 |
2004 FG29 | 2018-Apr-02 | 4 LD | 14.9 | 22 |
2018 ER1 | 2018-Apr-02 | 15.6 LD | 4 | 26 |
2018 EB | 2018-Apr-04 | 10.4 LD | 15.1 | 162 |
363599 | 2018-Apr-12 | 19.3 LD | 24.5 | 224 |
2014 UR | 2018-Apr-14 | 9.3 LD | 4.4 | 17 |
2016 JP | 2018-Apr-20 | 12 LD | 12.7 | 214 |
2012 XL16 | 2018-Apr-23 | 15.8 LD | 6.1 | 28 |
2013 US3 | 2018-Apr-29 | 10.1 LD | 7.7 | 214 |
2002 JR100 | 2018-Apr-29 | 10.8 LD | 7.7 | 49 |
1999 FN19 | 2018-May-07 | 9.7 LD | 5.7 | 118 |
2016 JQ5 | 2018-May-08 | 6.3 LD | 10.4 | 9 |
388945 | 2018-May-09 | 6.5 LD | 9 | 295 |
1999 LK1 | 2018-May-15 | 13.3 LD | 10 | 141 |
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.
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