ANIMATED SOLAR ECLIPSE MAPS: The Great American Solar Eclipse is less than one month away. How much of the sun will be covered over your home town? A great way to find out: Animated eclipse maps created by science-artist Larry Koehn. On his web site, there are individual maps for all 50 US states as well as little-known eclipse zones in Canada and Europe. Check it out! Free: Solar Flare Alerts
NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS FROM SPACE: This week, sky watchers near the Arctic Circle have reported nightly displays of bright noctilucent clouds. The silvery ripples of NLCs look amazing from the ground, but they look even better from space. NASA's AIM spacecraft took this picture of the entire Arctic surrounded by an electric-blue glow on July 24th:
Regular readers of Spaceweather.com have been waiting for this image since June. Normally, AIM transmits pictures of NLCs every day, but the regular flow of data was interrupted months ago. The reason has to do with the spacecraft's orbit. Since AIM was launched in 2007, its orbit has been precessing--that is, slowly rotating with respect to the planet below. Eventually, accumulated changes in AIM's orbital elements required a new way of pointing the spacecraft's instruments. Mission controllers have been working on that problem all summer long--and it has finally been solved.
"We are thrilled to be back in business," says Prof. Cora Randall, a member of the AIM science team at the University of Colorado's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. "Our orbit will continue to evolve, but at this point we believe that we know how to control the pointing under the anticipated orbit parameters."
NLCs are, essentially, clouds of frosted meteor smoke. They form when wisps of summertime water vapor rise toward the top of Earth's atmosphere. Water molecules stick to the microscopic debris of disintegrated meteoroids, assembling themselves into tiny crystals of ice that glow beautifully in sunlight at the edge of space.
Thanks to the efforts of the AIM team, you can see these strange clouds not only from Earth, but also from Earth orbit. AIM images are published every day right here on Spaceweather.com.
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
FARSIDE EXPLOSIONS CONTINUE: Space-based observatories recorded another powerful explosion on the farside of the sun today. The blast hurled a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) over the sun's northeastern limb, shown here in a movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft, which has a partial view of the sun's farside, pinpointed the explosion: The source appears to be old sunspot AR2665. The huge active region crossed the Earthside of the sun in early July, sparking moderately strong geomagnetic storms when it faced our planet. Apparently, it is still active, producing at least three significant CMEs since it began its farside transit more than 10 days ago.
AR2665 will spin back around to face Earth in early August. If the sunspot continues to explode, it could bring a new round of geomagnetic storms and auroras to our planet. Stay tuned. Free: Solar Flare Alerts
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
SOLAR ECLIPSE VIEWING GLASSES: Get ready for the Great American Solar Eclipse! Earth to Sky's safe solar glasses will allow you to view any phase of the upcoming solar eclipse without fear of damage to your eyes. The Family Pack includes 3 pairs of glasses and costs only $29.95. And there's a bonus. They have all been to the edge of space:
On June 23, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of solar glasses to the stratosphere onboard a high-altitude space weather balloon. The glasses ascended more than 95,000 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California before parachuting back to Earth.
Each Family Pack of solar eclipse glasses comes with a unique gift card showing the glasses floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that these items have been to the edge of space and back again.
More items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network and hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery