POSSIBLE EARTH-DIRECTED CME: Defying expectations, decaying sunspot AR2664 exploded during the late hours of June 28th. The long-duration B1-class blast produced a faint but clear halo CME. NOAA forecasters are analyzing the expanding cloud now to determine if it will hit Earth in the days ahead. Free: Aurora Alerts
NASA CREATES ARTIFICIAL 'SPACE CLOUDS': After multiple scrubbed launch attempts over the last 30 days, a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket finally blasted off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 4:25 a.m. on June 29th. The resulting display of space clouds was worth the wait:
"It was an amazing sight." says onlooker Kerry Puglisi of Smithfield VA. "I saw the clouds forming almost one/two at a time in all the colors of the rainbow. I wanted to run in for my camera, and wake my husband and son, but I was too amazed to move."
During the 8-minute flight, the rocket deployed 10 canisters about the size of soft drink cans more than 100 miles above Earth's surface. The canisters dispensed barium, strontium and cupric-oxide, which interacted to form blue-green and red vapors visible from New York to North Carolina. According to the space agency, the chemicals "pose[d] no hazard to residents along the mid-Atlantic coast."
"This photo doesn't do it justice," says Susan Milligan of Williamsburg VA. "As the canisters fired, the erupting colors were vivid and brilliantly apparent. This was the way the clouds looked as the colors dissipated."
These clouds allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions at the edge of space, giving them new insights into the dynamics of Earth's ionosphere.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
WHERE WILL YOU BE ON AUG. 21, 2017? The Great American Solar Eclipse is less than two months away. Do you know where you will be? The map below shows the path of totality (the narrow zone where the Moon completely covers the sun) overlaid on a statistical map of cloudiness for the month of August. The best places to be are blue:
Canadian meteorologist Jay Anderson and colleague Jennifer West made the map based on data from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. It shows that people in western states, where fractional cloud cover dips as low as 15%, are most likely to witness the precious two and a half minutes of totality. Overcast is more of a problem east of Missouri. As the Moon's shadow approaches the Atlantic Coast of the USA, there is a better than 50% chance that it will be hitting the tops of clouds instead of the landscape below.
Pushpins in the map show confirmed launch sites for the our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network. Using space weather balloons, teams of student researchers will launch cameras to the stratosphere for a unique view of the eclipse high above any obscuring clouds. There's more to their mission, however, than photography: Each balloon will also be equipped with an array of cosmic ray sensors. By the time the eclipse is finished, we will have gained a snapshot of how deep-space radiation is penetrating Earth's atmosphere across the entirety of North America. Want to join us? Click here.
Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
THESE PENDANTS HAVE TOUCHED SPACE: Looking for a far-out gift? On April 15, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of heart-shaped Venus pendants to the stratosphere onboard a high-altitude helium balloon. Here's one floating 111,550 feet above the Sierras of central California:
You can have one for $129.95. Each glittering pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
More items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
SUNSET RAINBOW: On June 25th, Brad Timerson of Newark NY stepped outside after a brief rain shower and witnessed a remarkably tall--and remarkably red--rainbow. "It was about as big as a rainbow can be," marveled Timerson. "I had to use my iPhone in panorama mode to catch it all."
What made this rainbow so tall? And so red? The answer to both questions is the sunset. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains:
"Sunset rainbows ride high in the sky because their centers are exactly opposite the sun. Like a see-saw, the lower the sun, the higher is the bow. Sunset light making up the 'bow is highly reddened by its long travel through the lower atmosphere where air and dust preferentially scatter away blues and greens."
"Timerson's 'bow shows something more, that rainbows are disks with colored rims," adds Cowley. "When you next see a bow, look for the contrast between the bright sky inside and the dark of Alexanders dark band immediately outside