CME IMPACT POSSIBLE THIS WEEKEND: A minor coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to hit Earth this weekend. It left the sun on June 29th, propelled toward us by a B7-class solar flare.The impact will probably be too weak to cause a geomagnetic storm, but high-latitude auroras are possible on July 3rd or 4th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
FIRST X-FLARE IN 4 YEARS: A new sunspot emerged during the early hours of July 3rd and promptly exploded, producing the first X-class solar flare since Sept. 2017. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
The July 3rd explosion registered X1.5 on the Richter Scale of Solar Flares
A pulse of X-rays briefly ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean: blackout map. Mariners, aviators, and amateur radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects below 30 MHz just after 1429 UT
The source of this flare is an un-numbered sunspot now growing near the sun's northwestern limb. Yesterday it did not even exist, highlighting the unpredictability of solar activity. More flares may be in the offing, so stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
SOLAR FLARE CAUSES RARE 'MAGNETIC CROCHET': The X-flare of July 3rd did something rare. "It disturbed all of my instruments," reports Rob Stammes, who operates a space weather observatory in Lofoten, Norway. The flare produced a radio burst, an ionospheric disturbance, a surge of electrical currents in the ground, and a deflection of the observatory's local magnetic field. All of these are shown in the strip chart recording, below.
"This is a first in many years," says Stammes. "The magnetic disturbance (circled in yellow) is especially rare."
The phenomenon is called a 'magnetic crochet.' Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere and caused currents to flow 60 km to 100 km above Earth's surface. These currents, in turn, altered Earth's polar magnetic field. Unlike geomagnetic disturbances that arrive with CMEs days after a flare, a magnetic crochet occurs while the flare is in progress. They tend to occur during fast impulsive flares like this one.
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"DAMMIT JIM, I'M A DOCTOR NOT A COFFEE CUP": There's nothing like morning coffee in a cup from space. On June 25, 2021, this rare ceramic Dr. McCoy mug flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon. At the apex of the flight, it floated 95,254 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $170.10. That's the serial number of the Enterprise divided by 10. The students are selling Star Trek mugs to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one holds 16 oz. of steaming hot Raktajino (Klingon coffee) and comes with a greeting card showing the collector's item in flight
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