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WHAT ARE MYSTERIOUS 'BRIGHT NIGHTS'? A phenomenon rarely seen in centuries might have just appeared in the night sky over Colorado--a "Bright Night." Philosophers and scientists have reported Bright Nights for literally thousands of years. It's when an otherwise dark and moonless night fills with a soft glow, allowing observers to see distant mountains or read a newspaper. Pliny the Elder, an Army commander in ancient Rome, described the phenomenon as a "nocturnal sun" (~ 113 BCE).
In the modern world, Bright Nights are seldom seen. Most of our planet's human population lives in cities, and even rural landscapes are somewhat lit by distant urban bulbs. The "nocturnal sun" has been overwhelmed.
Or has it? Enter Aaron Watson, an experienced night-sky photographer who regularly visits the darkest of dark-sky sites in remote parts of Colorado. On multiple occasions this year he has photographed red auroras and green airglow invisible from any ordinary countryside. Last month, he was at one of his favorite inky-dark sites when he may have experienced a modern Bright Night.
Bright airglow over Colorado on Oct. 9,2023. Credit: Aaron Watson
"I go outside on most clear nights to observe," says Watson, "but the night of Oct 9th was noticeably different. Although there was no Moon, or any other source of light, the landscape was softly illuminated. Nearby juniper trees made dark silhouettes against the glowing night sky. I could easily see my telescope and equipment. My partner was with me, and I could see her face quite well. I remarked, 'Wow, it's so bright out!' and she agreed."
"A 'Bright Night' sounds exactly like what I experienced!" says Watson.
As the landscape grew in brightness, Watson decided to photograph the sky. When he pointed his lens toward the stars, the viewscreen of his camera filled with green light. "It was a very strong green airglow--perhaps the brightest I have ever seen," he says. A 20 second exposure produced the photo shown above.
Bright Nights have been a mystery since at least the first century. Watson's photo could be a clue. It seems to confirm a hypothesis published in 2017 by Gordon Shepherd, then a professor at Canada's York University, who believed that Bright Nights were caused by intense displays of airglow.
Shepherd came to this conclusion using a satellite sensor he built himself: The Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII), which orbited Earth for 14 years onboard NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. When he and co-author Youngmin Cho examined WINDII's archive, they found a number of apparent Bright Nights in the sensor's airglow data.
Airglow is just what it sounds like: A diffuse glow that fills the air. It is produced by photochemistry in Earth's upper atmosphere, with its green color coming from atomic oxygen. Frequently photographed by astronauts on the ISS, airglow can be detected by sensitive cameras on almost any dark night from all locations on Earth. Rarely, however, is it visible without a camera.
Airglow seen from the International Space Station
In their paper, Shepherd and Cho highlighted 11 events where WINDII detected airglow bright enough to see with the human eye. All were correlated with giant waves of high-altitude air called "zonal waves." Zonal waves are linked to Earth's jet stream, and play a crucial role in weather and climate. During the events Shepherd and Cho studied, zonal waves piled up ("constructively interfered") to create high pressure regions hundreds to thousands of miles wide. By forcing atomic oxygen into a higher concentration, the zonal waves created an intense Bright Night glow.
The amorphous glow in Watson's photo is just what one would expect of broad zonal wave activity. "The airglow was strong in all directions," recalls Watson. "It had a flat color density without ripples or other fine structures"--just as one would expect from Shepherd and Cho's hypotheses.
Bright Nights might not be a thing of the past, after all.
Would you like to experience a Bright Night? Good news: Solar activity is boosting airglow, making the job of zonal waves that much easier. On the next moonless night, find a dark-dark site far from city lights. Bring a newspaper to read--and let us know what happens.
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18K GOLD "ALWAYS AND FOREVER" PENDANT: Are you looking for an unforgettable gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. On Aug. 29, 2023, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $229.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this 18K gold-plated sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped ruby crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking premium pendant that makes a once-in-a-lifetime anniversary or birthday gift.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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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 Nov 14, 2023, the network reported 21 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 3 Northern Taurids, 2 Leonids)
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 November 14, 2023 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 VC | 2023-Nov-09 | 6.3 LD | 9.6 | 29 |
| 2023 VE6 | 2023-Nov-09 | 1.9 LD | 9.1 | 14 |
| 2018 VN7 | 2023-Nov-09 | 3.2 LD | 13.2 | 30 |
| 2023 VN1 | 2023-Nov-09 | 14.4 LD | 7.6 | 14 |
| 2023 VU2 | 2023-Nov-10 | 1.9 LD | 6.1 | 8 |
| 2023 VT3 | 2023-Nov-10 | 11.1 LD | 7.5 | 20 |
| 2023 VD4 | 2023-Nov-10 | 0.4 LD | 15.6 | 8 |
| 2023 VY3 | 2023-Nov-11 | 3.5 LD | 16.1 | 11 |
| 2023 VD1 | 2023-Nov-11 | 17.2 LD | 10 | 35 |
| 2023 VQ5 | 2023-Nov-11 | 3.5 LD | 6.8 | 10 |
| 2023 VL2 | 2023-Nov-11 | 2.7 LD | 5.9 | 8 |
| 2023 VK3 | 2023-Nov-11 | 7.4 LD | 3.7 | 8 |
| 2023 VU4 | 2023-Nov-11 | 12.4 LD | 5.3 | 18 |
| 2023 UQ4 | 2023-Nov-11 | 10.7 LD | 8.4 | 39 |
| 2023 VF3 | 2023-Nov-12 | 8.9 LD | 9 | 19 |
| 2023 VV7 | 2023-Nov-12 | 5.9 LD | 7 | 16 |
| 2023 VR3 | 2023-Nov-12 | 5.9 LD | 7.7 | 18 |
| 2023 VK1 | 2023-Nov-12 | 10.1 LD | 9.1 | 26 |
| 2023 VN7 | 2023-Nov-12 | 5.7 LD | 4.9 | 29 |
| 2023 TZ2 | 2023-Nov-12 | 19 LD | 2.8 | 24 |
| 2023 VY1 | 2023-Nov-13 | 8.9 LD | 6.3 | 37 |
| 2023 VG7 | 2023-Nov-13 | 4.9 LD | 10 | 9 |
| 2014 BA3 | 2023-Nov-13 | 15.7 LD | 2.7 | 8 |
| 2023 VQ7 | 2023-Nov-13 | 5.8 LD | 12.3 | 36 |
| 2023 VV1 | 2023-Nov-13 | 2 LD | 3.7 | 6 |
| 2023 VP4 | 2023-Nov-13 | 3 LD | 5.7 | 7 |
| 2023 VX | 2023-Nov-13 | 17.4 LD | 11.1 | 53 |
| 2023 VR4 | 2023-Nov-14 | 17.9 LD | 10.5 | 89 |
| 2023 UO | 2023-Nov-15 | 6.4 LD | 6.8 | 36 |
| 2023 VL6 | 2023-Nov-15 | 8.8 LD | 5.1 | 17 |
| 2021 TN3 | 2023-Nov-15 | 17 LD | 6.3 | 31 |
| 2019 VL5 | 2023-Nov-16 | 8.5 LD | 8.2 | 24 |
| 2023 VG5 | 2023-Nov-17 | 5.7 LD | 23.3 | 24 |
| 2023 VX4 | 2023-Nov-17 | 7 LD | 3.9 | 11 |
| 2023 VX7 | 2023-Nov-17 | 2.5 LD | 10.8 | 14 |
| 2023 VK4 | 2023-Nov-17 | 12.3 LD | 11.9 | 25 |
| 2023 VW7 | 2023-Nov-17 | 7.3 LD | 10.1 | 19 |
| 2019 LB1 | 2023-Nov-18 | 15.8 LD | 4.2 | 14 |
| 2016 DK1 | 2023-Nov-19 | 5.3 LD | 6.8 | 12 |
| 2023 VY7 | 2023-Nov-19 | 19.6 LD | 13.7 | 80 |
| 2023 VT7 | 2023-Nov-19 | 15 LD | 10.6 | 56 |
| 2022 VR1 | 2023-Nov-19 | 8.1 LD | 6.1 | 39 |
| 2023 VE7 | 2023-Nov-20 | 14.1 LD | 19.7 | 38 |
| 2023 VE4 | 2023-Nov-20 | 13.3 LD | 11.6 | 37 |
| 2023 VW5 | 2023-Nov-21 | 4.4 LD | 11.2 | 31 |
| 2023 VC7 | 2023-Nov-23 | 10.6 LD | 8.1 | 23 |
| 2023 VH6 | 2023-Nov-23 | 6.8 LD | 7.3 | 28 |
| 2019 UT6 | 2023-Nov-24 | 9 LD | 13.2 | 141 |
| 2019 CZ2 | 2023-Nov-25 | 2.8 LD | 5.8 | 44 |
| 2023 VH5 | 2023-Nov-25 | 17.9 LD | 9 | 32 |
| 2023 VM1 | 2023-Nov-26 | 10.9 LD | 8.9 | 43 |
| 2013 UB3 | 2023-Nov-27 | 18.5 LD | 5.4 | 25 |
| 2023 VR5 | 2023-Nov-28 | 5.3 LD | 3 | 10 |
| 2023 VM7 | 2023-Dec-01 | 6.4 LD | 3.2 | 11 |
| 1998 WB2 | 2023-Dec-03 | 11 LD | 14.2 | 151 |
| 2013 VX4 | 2023-Dec-04 | 5.1 LD | 6.6 | 60 |
| 2023 TB27 | 2023-Dec-06 | 17 LD | 4.3 | 44 |
| 139622 | 2023-Dec-06 | 14.4 LD | 6.7 | 719 |
| 2020 HX3 | 2023-Dec-10 | 9.8 LD | 15.7 | 13 |
| 2010 XF3 | 2023-Dec-11 | 19.4 LD | 4 | 46 |
| 2016 XD2 | 2023-Dec-19 | 18.7 LD | 6.9 | 59 |
| 341843 | 2023-Dec-20 | 16.5 LD | 5.3 | 344 |
| 2018 YJ2 | 2023-Dec-21 | 18.4 LD | 13.1 | 154 |
| 2022 YG | 2023-Dec-22 | 10.8 LD | 5.1 | 17 |
| 2023 VD6 | 2023-Dec-23 | 10.6 LD | 15.5 | 167 |
| 2020 YO3 | 2023-Dec-23 | 3.6 LD | 16.6 | 42 |
| 2010 UE51 | 2023-Dec-24 | 9 LD | 1.3 | 7 |
| 2020 YR2 | 2023-Dec-25 | 13.8 LD | 8 | 8 |
| 2021 AM6 | 2023-Dec-31 | 18.3 LD | 6.6 | 17 |
| 2019 KK5 | 2024-Jan-03 | 10.6 LD | 20.9 | 98 |
| 2002 AY1 | 2024-Jan-08 | 15.2 LD | 17.3 | 230 |
| 2020 AC1 | 2024-Jan-11 | 19.3 LD | 5.3 | 7 |
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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