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MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible on March 4th and 5th in response to an incoming CME. Hurled into space by the M8.6-class flare of Feb. 28th, the CME is not heading directly for Earth. Instead it will deliver only a glancing blow, mitigating the intensity of any geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A NEW SOURCE OF FLARES: New sunspot AR3242 is magnetically complex and crackling with M-class solar flares. This morning in Hong Kong, David Leong pointed his solar telescope at the sun and immediately saw an explosion:
"AR3242 was already flaring when I started shooting at 5:11 UT," says Leong. "The unusually dark filaments kept changing shape minute by minute on my computer screen. It was an hour of wonder and excitement."
This sunspot is turning toward Earth, and it will soon be in our planet's strike zone. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE (UPDATED): Departing sunspot AR3234 produced another X2-class solar flare on March 3rd (1752 UTC). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. Aviators and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal and other unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz for as much as an hour.
The explosion also produced a coronal mass ejection (CME), shown here in a video from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Although the bulk of the CME will clearly miss Earth, there is a hint of an Earth-directed component in the full coronagraph movie. A low-confidence glancing blow is possible on March 6th. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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AURORAS OVER THE DEVIL'S TOWER: On Feb. 26th, a CME struck Earth's magnetic field, sparking a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm with rare auroras at mid-latitudes. Tom A. Warner was waiting with his camera at Devil's Tower, Wyoming, when the CME arrived:
"The geomagnetic storm lit up the Devil's Tower with bands of green and beautiful red rays," says Warner.
Located at latitude +44.6N, the Devil's Tower rises 867 feet above the surrounding terrain. Hundreds of parallel cracks make it one of the finest crack climbing areas in North America. The tower's unique appearance has made it a popular subject for photographers and filmmakers, and it was even featured in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
The auroras didn't stop there. As the storm intensified, the light show descended all the way to latitude +40N, with sightings in Colorado, Nebraska, and Missouri. More mid-latitude auroras are in the offing as Solar Cycle 25 intensifies. Stay tuned! Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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STERLING SILVER RAINBOW DRAGONFLY (GOLDEN HEART): Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider a rainbow dragonfly from the edge of space. On June 3, 2022, this sterling silver pendant hitched a ride onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $172.95. The dragonfly's heart is a golden Celtic love knot, and its wings are decorated with a spray of rainbow-colored crystals. The students are selling dragonfly pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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 Mar 04 2023, the network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 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 4, 2023 there were 2331 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 CX2 | 2023-Feb-27 | 7.6 LD | 2.3 | 11 |
| 2023 CC2 | 2023-Feb-27 | 16.2 LD | 5.1 | 31 |
| 2012 DK31 | 2023-Feb-27 | 12.6 LD | 15.5 | 143 |
| 2023 EA | 2023-Feb-27 | 1.7 LD | 18.7 | 17 |
| 2023 DR1 | 2023-Feb-28 | 5.2 LD | 6.6 | 10 |
| 2006 BE55 | 2023-Feb-28 | 9.4 LD | 13.3 | 145 |
| 2023 DJ1 | 2023-Mar-01 | 2.8 LD | 6.2 | 8 |
| 2023 DK1 | 2023-Mar-02 | 9.2 LD | 9.2 | 15 |
| 2023 DX | 2023-Mar-03 | 5.2 LD | 13.1 | 24 |
| 2021 QW | 2023-Mar-03 | 13.9 LD | 12.1 | 79 |
| 2017 BM123 | 2023-Mar-03 | 12.1 LD | 7.8 | 61 |
| 2023 DN1 | 2023-Mar-03 | 7.4 LD | 7.3 | 16 |
| 2007 ED125 | 2023-Mar-03 | 11.7 LD | 13.1 | 224 |
| 2015 EG | 2023-Mar-04 | 13.9 LD | 10.6 | 27 |
| 2023 DU | 2023-Mar-05 | 3.3 LD | 11.7 | 31 |
| 2023 BK5 | 2023-Mar-05 | 17.8 LD | 8.4 | 62 |
| 2023 EC | 2023-Mar-05 | 11.8 LD | 8 | 29 |
| 535844 | 2023-Mar-07 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 149 |
| 2023 DQ | 2023-Mar-08 | 6.2 LD | 22.8 | 165 |
| 2020 FQ | 2023-Mar-09 | 14 LD | 6.3 | 13 |
| 2020 FV4 | 2023-Mar-13 | 17.6 LD | 8.2 | 30 |
| 2023 CM | 2023-Mar-14 | 10.3 LD | 14 | 190 |
| 2023 DM | 2023-Mar-15 | 8.5 LD | 7.4 | 66 |
| 2018 UQ1 | 2023-Mar-17 | 10.7 LD | 11.7 | 143 |
| 2016 WH | 2023-Mar-19 | 18.1 LD | 11.8 | 14 |
| 2018 FE3 | 2023-Mar-21 | 10.1 LD | 5.4 | 13 |
| 2023 CE4 | 2023-Mar-29 | 20 LD | 10.1 | 93 |
| 2022 YK4 | 2023-Mar-29 | 11.9 LD | 2.3 | 25 |
| 2017 SE12 | 2023-Mar-30 | 5.2 LD | 8.4 | 15 |
| 2016 GH1 | 2023-Mar-30 | 7.7 LD | 5.8 | 11 |
| 2022 GO3 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17 LD | 11.6 | 15 |
| 2021 GN1 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17.7 LD | 14.2 | 18 |
| 2018 FD | 2023-Apr-07 | 17.9 LD | 8.2 | 47 |
| 2019 GK21 | 2023-Apr-13 | 15.2 LD | 8.1 | 27 |
| 2022 YK9 | 2023-Apr-13 | 19.9 LD | 9.9 | 175 |
| 436774 | 2023-Apr-13 | 12.5 LD | 17.6 | 719 |
| 2006 HV5 | 2023-Apr-26 | 6.3 LD | 17.4 | 400 |
| 2021 JF2 | 2023-Apr-28 | 16.6 LD | 8 | 19 |
| 2018 VS6 | 2023-May-01 | 5.2 LD | 11.6 | 14 |
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 |
| | 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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