HIGH-SPEED SOLAR WIND SPARKS AURORAS: Earth is inside a stream of high-speed solar wind. When it arrived on Jan 5th, the onset of pressure against our planet's magnetic field produced a G1-class geomagnetic storm and bright pink auroras around the Arctic Circle. Since then, geomagnetic activity has subsided although NOAA forecasters say it could renew as Earth continues its passage through the stream on Jan. 6th. Aurora Alerts: SMS text
A PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: This morning in Asia, the New Moon passed in front of the sun, off center, producing a partial solar eclipse. Joerg Schoppmeyer photographed the Moon taking a little bite out of the sun over Harbin, the capital of China's Heilongjiang province:
"This picture shows the beginning of the eclipse behind one of many distant cranes here in Harbin, China," says Schoppmeyer. "Later, almost half of the sun was covered."
During a solar eclipse--even a partial one--the shadow of the Moon touches the surface of Earth. Anyone inside the shadow can look up and see the eclipse. Japan's Himawari-8 weather satellite photographed the shadow's rapid transit from China to the the Aleutian Islands of Alaska:
This is a 12-hour animation. It shows the progress of sunrise across the Pacific side of Earth. The Moon's shadow is the swift gray silhouette moving from left to right across the northern hemisphere. Can't find it? Look here.
Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
SPACE WEATHER ALERTS--NEW! Spaceweather.com is proud to announce our new and improved space weather alert system. Sign up now and you'll never miss another solar storm in 2019. Subscribers receive instant text messages when there are solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and CMEs about to strike Earth. And if you sign up for the PRO PLAN, you'll receive a type of alert available no where else. Keep reading after the graphic to learn more:
PRO PLAN subscribers get a text message whenever a crack is opening in Earth's magnetosphere. Magnetic cracks are caused by south-pointing magnetic fields ("BsubZ") in the solar wind, which partially cancel Earth's magnetic defenses. Solar wind pours in through these cracks to fuel bright auroras and geomagnetic storms. Veteran aurora chasers know that watching "BsubZ" is the best way to anticipate geomagnetic activity. Now your cell phone can do this job for you, alerting you when cracks are forming in the invisible magnetic field overhead.
To kick off the New Year, we are offering annual plans as low as $49.95. Sign up now and check off that New Year's Resolution: I'll never miss another solar storm.
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Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery