ATMOSPHERIC COSMIC RAYS ARE INCREASING: New data released by the Earth to Sky Calculus high-altitude ballooning program show that atmospheric cosmic rays are intensifying for the 4th year in a row--an ironic side-effect of the decaying solar cycle. The new results are of interest to everyone from astronauts to air travelers. Get the full story.
IT'S BACK! A BIG HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: During solar minimum, long-lasting holes open in the sun's atmosphere, releasing streams of solar wind into space. One of those holes is turning to face Earth now, and it's a big one:
We've seen this hole before. It opened in the summer of 2018 and has been spinning around as the sun rotates, lashing Earth with solar wind approximately once a month. The last time our planet felt its gaseous emissions, in late Jan. 2019, bright auroras surged around the Arctic Circle and some of the lights even spilled into the USA.
G1-class geomagnetic storms are likely on Feb. 26th or 27th when the solar wind returns. Stay tuned! Aurora Alerts: SMS text, email.
LOOKING FOR A FAR-OUT GIFT? Every time the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launch cosmic ray sensors to the stratosphere, they send a little something extra along for the ride. For example, this purple heart:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling these pendants as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray monitoring program. They make great anniversary, birthday and Mother's Day gifts. 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.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
PHYSICS OF AN EXPLODING COSMIC RAY BALLOON: On Nov. 14, 2018, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a balloon to measure increasing levels of cosmic rays in the atmosphere. At the apex of the flight, the balloon exploded and the radiation sensors parachuted back to Earth. A video camera on top of the payload recorded the pop:
These images illustrate recent findings about the physics of exploding balloons. In a Physical Review Letter entitled "Popping Balloons: A Case Study of Dynamical Fragmentation," researchers from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris report a series of laboratory experiments in which one balloon after another was popped and analyzed.
Basically, there are two ways a balloon can pop: along a single tear (the "opening regime") or along many tears (the "fragmentation regime"). This video shows the two regimes in action. Which way the balloon decided to pop depends on the stress in the rubber membrane. When the stress is low, it can be relieved with a single tear, but when the stress is high, many tears are required to do the job.
Space weather balloons explode in the fragmentation regime, and the new research explains why. When space weather balloons are launched, they measure no more than 6 to 8 feet in diameter. By the time they reach the stratosphere, they have stretched into a sphere as wide as a house. So much stress requires many tears to release.
More information about this research is available from the American Physical Society.