SOLAR WIND SPARKS AURORAS: A high-speed solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, and this is causing G1-class geomagnetic storms around the poles. Arctic observers are reporting bright auroras despite cloudy winter weather. Solar wind speeds are expected to remain high throughout the weekend. Free: Aurora Alerts
NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS APPEAR OVER ANTARCTICA: This just in from NASA's AIM spacecraft: The sky above Antarctica is glowing electric blue. A ring of bright noctilucent clouds (NLCs) has formed around the South Pole, shown here in a Nov. 24th image taken by the spacecraft's Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) Instrument:
NLCs are Earth's highest clouds. They form more than 80 km above Earth's surface. Indeed, they are a mixture of Earth and space: Wisps of summertime water vapor rising from the planet below wrap themselves around meteoroids, forming tiny crystals of ice. Emphasis on summertime; NLCs appear on the eve of summer in both hemispheres.
There is growing evidence that noctilucent clouds are boosted by climate change. In recent years they have been sighted at lower latitudes than ever before, and they often get started in earlier months as well.
"This season started on Nov. 17th, and is tied with 2013 for the earliest southern hemisphere season in the CIPS data record," says Cora Randall, a member of the AIM science team at the University of Colorado. "This was not at all a surprise: The southern hemisphere polar stratospheric winds switched to their summer-like state quite early this year."
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
FALSE AURORAS OVER THE YUKON: Attracted by the promise of the solar wind, Thomas Jacquin of Whitehorse, Canada, went outside to look for the auroras. He saw something completely different. "Not to be mistaken for Northern Lights, these bright colorful stripes are called light pillars," he says.
Also known as "false auroras," light pillars are caused by ice crystals in the air which intercept urban lights and spread them into colorful columns. No solar activity is required for the phenomenon. The only ingredients are ice and light pollution.
"The different colors in this picture come from the various color temperatures of our street lights," explains Jacquin. "The warm orange ones come from traditional high pressure sodium lamps whereas the bright white pillars come from new LED lamps. While the new LED technology saves energy, it also increases light pollution and health concerns if the color temperature is not carefully selected. 3000K LEDs (warm yellow) are preferred over 4000K ones (bright white)."
More auroras, false and otherwise, may be found in the realtime photo gallery:
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.