GEOMAGNETIC STORM UPDATE: A strong G3-class geomagnetic storm that sparked bright equinox auroras around the Arctic Circle last night is now subsiding. At the peak of the storm, Northern Lights descended into the USA as far south as Washington, Michigan, Montana, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. The activity was sparked by a stream of solar wind flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere. Free: Aurora Alerts
AN EXPLOSION OF PINK OVER ALASKA: Knowing that a solar wind stream was heading for Earth, forecasters predicted a geomagnetic storm last night. However, they didn't predict it would be so strong, a G3-class event. Marketa S. Murray photographed the pleasant surprise outside Fairbanks, Alaska:
"It was one of the best shows I've seen," says Murray, a longtime Alaska sky watcher and aurora tour guide. "The auroras were remarkable for their amazing pink and purple color."
The pink color is a sign of nitrogen. Most auroras are green--a verdant glow caused by energetic particles from space hitting oxygen atoms 100 km to 300 km above Earth's surface. Pink appears when energetic particles descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below. The solar wind stream currently blowing around Earth seems to be sending particles deep enough into Earth's atmosphere to spark this lovely type of aurora. Free: Aurora Alerts
AURORA AND FOGBOW: Last night in northern Sweden, the auroras were so bright they could be seen through fog and urban lights. Mia Stålnacke of Kiruna photographed green curtains beaming through the arc of a ghostly fogbow:
"The sky absolutely exploded with auroras," says Stålnacke. "Just before the sky went on fire, a bright fogbow was seen, brought on by incredibly bright lights on the hill where I was standing."
Fogbows are close cousins of rainbows, and they are formed in essentially the same way: light bounces in and out of water droplets. The difference is droplet size. Large raindrops make rainbows. Smaller droplets make fogbows. Small droplets don't separate the colors of sunlight as widely as large raindrops do. In a fogbow, therefore, the colors are smeared together, producing a ghostly-white arc.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
ROSE QUARTZ CRYSTAL ECLIPSE PENDANTS: On Aug. 21st during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. They aimed to photograph the Moon's shadow from the stratosphere--and they succeeded. As a fundraiser, some of the balloons carried jewelry, such as this rose quartz crystal pendant floating inside the Moon's shadow more than 90,000 feet above Oregon's Malheur National Forest:
During the 2.5 hour flight, the pendants were wrapped in the Moon's shadow for more than two minutes, experiencing a spooky darkness colder than -50 C.
You can have one for $149.95. Each crystal pendant comes with a unique gift card showing the jewelry passing through the Moon's shadow and floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education