SOLAR WIND UPDATE: Earth is exiting a solar wind stream that sparked bright high-latitude auroras during the first week of March. Another stream is on the way. Flowing from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere, the gaseous material is expected to reach Earth on March 13th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
STEVE IS BACK: Northern spring is less than 2 weeks away. That means hot-purple ribbons of plasma are starting to flow in Earth's magnetosphere. Markus Varik saw one of them on March 7th over Tromsø, Norway:
"STEVE shot right up from the horizon," says Varik. "It is always heartwarming to see him here in Norway."
STEVE--short for "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement"--was long thought to be a type of aurora borealis. But it's not. Auroras appear when particles rain down from space. STEVE, on the other hand, does not require any "rain." Satellite measurements show that it is a ribbon of gas speeding through the upper reaches of Earth's magnetic field faster than 10,000 mph.
For reasons researchers don't fully understand, STEVE appears most often in weeks around equinoxes--that is, now. STEVE has returned, and we can expect to see more of him in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned.
Realtime STEVE Photo Gallery
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GEOSYNCHRONOUS SATELLITE GLINTS: Now you see it, now you don't. A flash of light briefly appears in the night sky, then disappears before you can make out what it is. No, it's not your imagination. It's a geosynchronous satellite. Matt Penn captured dozens of them glinting in the night sky over Tucson, AZ, on March 6th:
Note: The first thing in this video that catches your eye may be bright airplanes near the horizon. Look at the full-sized video; the glints are here.
"This is the season for geosynchronous satellite glints," says Penn. "They tend to occur around the equinoxes [when the sun is favorably aligned with the Clarke Belt]."
"Anyone with an all-sky cam can see them," he continues. "Some are as bright as 2nd magnitude. My setup is a Raspberry Pi High Quality Cam, 1.5mm fl lens, a Pi Zero W, tripod and USB battery. Total cost = $160US. A network of these around the globe, observing near the equinoxes, could catalog and monitor all the geosyncs."
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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THE VERNAL EQUINOX PEARL: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Vernal Equinox Pearl, launched to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. Here it is, floating 111,202 feet above the snow-capped Sierra Nevada of central California:
You can have it for $179.95. The students are selling space pearls to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. This 10mm cultured white pearl, surrounded by a crystalline splash of spring-green cubic zirconia, spent more than 2 hours in the stratosphere as sensors in the payload measured cosmic rays.
Each purchase comes with a greeting card showing the pearl 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
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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