CHANCE OF STORMS THIS WEEKEND: NOAA forecasters say there is a 60% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms on July 9th when a high-speed solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The stream of gas is flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere, now facing Earth. Unfortunately, bright moonlight will interfere with the visibility of auroras, which might otherwise be seen at high latitudes. Free: Aurora Alerts
SUNSPOT SURPRISE: Big sunspot AR2665 continues to expand and grow. It is now more than 75,000 km long with multiple dark cores larger than our entire planet. At sunrise on July 8th, Peter Lowenstein of Mutare, Zimbabwe, saw AR2665 through morning clouds and mist at the Cecil Kop Nature Reserve:
"In this surreal photograph, taken at just the right moment when clouds were not too thick to obscure it, complex sunspot AR2665 and its chain of smaller cores is clearly visible on the solar disk," says Lowenstein. "I used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 camera in sunset scene mode to capture the picture."
AR2665 is by far the largest sunspot of 2017 and it temporarily interrupts the sun's headlong plunge into a spotless Solar Minimum. So far AR2665 has not produced any strong flares, but this could change if the sunspot's rapid growth destabilizes its magnetic field and causes it to explode. Stay tuned for updates as the sunspot turns toward Earth. Free: Solar Flare Alerts
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SOLAR ECLIPSE SPACE PENDANTS: Would you like to support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network? Here's one way: Buy a space pendant. This solar eclipse-themed necklace flew to the stratosphere on July 2, 2017, attached to the payload of an Earth to Sky Calculus space weather balloon:
The payload contained more just like it. If you buy one now for $79.95, we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017, where it will be enveloped by the Moon's cool shadow above our launch site in Oregon. No additional charge! Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of the shopping cart: "Please fly my pendant into the eclipse!" Each 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
NOCTILUCENT GRAVITY WAVES: Shining electric-blue in the night sky, noctilucent clouds (NLCs) look alien. That's because they are. The clouds are seeded by meteor smoke from outer space. Wisps of summertime water vapor rise from the surface of our planet and wrap themselves around the debris of meteors disintegrating in Earth's upper atmosphere, in turn forming icy NLCs. On July 1st and 4th, photographer Adrien Mauduit in Alberta, Canada, captured a remarkable display:
"In this gorgeous 4K video, you can see the different fine structures that appear in NLCs: Waves, billows, knots, bands, and veritable storms revealed themselves in a manner I will never forget!" says Mauduit. "You might think they look like the waves of the ocean or the bottom of a pool; indeed that's exactly what this wondrous natural spectacle looks like."
In fact, they are gravity waves--that is, waves of pressure and temperature rippling away from powerful thunderstorms in Earth's lower atmosphere. Gravity does not vary inside the waves. They get their name from the fact that gravity acts as a restoring force that tries to restore equilibrium to up-and-down moving air. Gravity waves can propagate all the way from Earth's surface up to the mesosphere, where they imprint themselves on the the forms of noctilucent clouds.
Mauduit's video of these waves is among the best we've ever seen. He is currently monitoring NLCs from the remote town of High Level, Canada, in support of Project PoSSUM--a NASA-funded citizen science project. Participants receive suborbital astronaut training while they study NLCs from the un-pressurized cabin of a high-flying research aircraft. Mauduit's cameras were on the ground supplementing the ones on the plane.
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery