A NEW ACTIVE REGION IS COMING: Today the sun is spotless, but it might not remain so for long. A new Solar Cycle 25 active region is approaching from behind the sun's northeastern limb, right here. The dark cores of a sunspot could be hidden beneath its magnetic arches. We'll find out later this weekend when the region rotates into view. Stay tuned. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
ELVEs ABOVE TROPICAL STORM LAURA: Last night, Frankie Lucena of Puerto Rico trained his cameras on the eastern sky, anticipating the approach of Tropical Storm Laura. He recorded something he didn't expect. "The storm was generating ELVEs," he says. Note the flashing donut of light just above the treetops in this animation:
"In total, I recorded 3 flashes of ELVE lightning between the trees and Mars," he says. "You can see them all in this video."
First seen by cameras on the space shuttle in 1990, ELVEs (Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources) appear when a pulse of electromagnetic radiation from cloud-to-ground lightning propagates up toward space and hits the base of Earth's ionosphere. A faint ring of deep-red light marks the broad 'spot' where the EMP hits.
The fact that ELVEs are appearing above Laura means that the tropical storm contains some fierce lightning. For ELVEs to appear, the underlying lightning needs to be very strong--typically 150-350 kilo-ampères. For comparison, normal cloud-to-ground flashes only reach 10-30 kA.
Above: The red arrow points from Lucena's camera to the approaching storm
"Mars is very bright in the night sky now and was located just above these three events--a very fortunate coincidence," says Lucena. "Now it looks like I'm going to have to hunker down and hope Laura doesn't take down my remaining avocado, banana and bread fruit trees."
Learn more about the history and physics of ELVEs here and here.
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MR. SPOCK IN THE STRATOSPHERE (COLLECTOR'S ITEM): If you would like to support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program, there's a logical way to do it. Purchase Mr. Spock. Here is the green-blooded science officer floating 32.2 km (112,200 ft) above Death Valley National Park in central California:
You can have him for $170.10. The price is the serial number of the Enterprise, NCC1701, divided by 10--a bargain on any planet! The students are selling Spock to buy more helium. He comes with a greeting card showing the high-quality resin bobblehead in flight and telling the story of his journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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