ARCTIC AURORA WATCH: A southern hole in the sun's atmosphere is spewing a stream of solar wind into space. The gaseous material could graze our planet's magnetic field on Sept. 7th or 8th, causing minor geomagnetic unrest and auroras around the Arctic Circle. At this time of year, auroras can mix with polar twilight to form uniquely beautiful photo-ops, so even minor unrest is worth watching. Aurora alerts: SMS Text

A SPRITE HALO OVER THE CARIBBEAN: Two nights ago, Frankie Lucena of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, trained a video camera over a distant passing storm hoping to photograph upward-directed lightning. It's something he often does. Lucena is a successful sprite hunter. In this case, however, he caught something different--a sprite halo.

"I was hoping for some sprites, but instead I was treated with this cool looking halo lightning event," says Lucena. "It was generated by a powerful cloud-to-ground lightning discharge just south of the Dominican Republic on the night of Sept 6, 2019."

This satellite weather map shows where his camera was pointing:

Sprite halos are giant saucers of light approximately 50 kilometers wide and 10 kilometers thick. They often appear milliseconds before sprites themselves, with sprite streamers hanging down from the saucer's fading afterglow. In this case, however, the halo appeared all by itself.

"There were no sprites," says Lucena. The ionization of the atmosphere may have been too weak to cross the threshold required for streamer formation. That's okay. Sprite halos are cool enough on their own.

Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery
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THE ANTARES PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Antares Pendant. On Aug. 19, 2019, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the edge of space, 104,002 ft high. This ruby-red crystal necklace went along for the ride:

You can have it for $179.95. The students are selling these white gold-plated pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. The glittering Swarovski crystal has a deep ruby hue inspired by the red-supergiant star Antares in Scorpio. Each one comes with greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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