SEE THE AURORAS LIVE: Bright green auroras are dancing above Sweden right now in response to the solar wind stream described below. The light show is being broadcast in realtime on an Abisko National Park webcam. Watch it!
ENTERING THE SOLAR WIND STREAM: As predicted, today Earth is entering a stream of high-speed solar wind. First contact with the gaseous material sparked bright green auroras over Iceland. "We saw them through gaps in some nice lenticular clouds," reports Olivier Staiger, who sends this picture from the Fjallsarlon glacier lagoon:
"The auroras were nice and bright and wide--mostly green with a fring of pink," says Saiger.
The solar wind stream responsible for this display may be here for a while. Flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere, the stream is broad and should take several days to cross. Arctic auroras are possible from now until at least Nov. 25th. Free: Aurora Alerts
A SUNSPOT AROUND THE BEND: For the past two days, the face of the sun has been blank--no sunspots. This is a sign that the sunspot cycle is crashing. Crash postponed: a new sunspot is emerging over the sun's northeastern limb. Its towering magnetic canopy appeared yesterday in this extreme ultraviolet image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
Play the movie. There is unrest in the sunspot's magnetic field. Could a solar flare be in the offing? As the sunspot emerges and turns toward Earth in the days ahead, we will get a better view of its underlying dark core and be able to determine its potential for explosions. If this new sunspot is anything like other recent sunspots, however, strong flares are unlikely. NOAA forecasters say there is no more than a 1% chance of flares on Nov. 23rd.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
A FAR OUT STOCKING STUFFER: It's out of this world: the Sirius Space Pendant. To raise money for their space weather ballooning program, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown 3 dozen pendants to the edge of space–and you can have one for $69.95. The pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and certifying that it has been to the stratosphere and back again.
The pendants flew to the edge of space on Nov. 20, 2016, alongside an array of cosmic radiation sensors. (We're reducing the data now!) After the balloon exploded, the payload parachuted back to Earth, landing in the snowy San Antonio mountains north of Tonopah, Nevada, where a student team recovered it on Nov. 22nd.
The research of Earth to Sky Calculus is not supported by government grants or corporate donations. Instead, we are entirely crowd-funded. Proceeds from the sale of items like the Sirius Pendant go right back into cutting-edge student research. More edge of space Christmas gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky Store.