EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARES: Today began with an explosion on the sun. Just after UT midnight on Sept. 8th, sunspot AR2864 unleashed a C2-class solar flare: movie. A pulse of UV radiation ionized Earth's atmosphere, briefly disturbing shortwave radio propagation around the Pacific Rim: map. The explosion also hurled a CME into space. NOAA analysts are modeling the CME's trajectory now to determine if it might strike Earth. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Update: Make that two Earth-directed solar flares. Giant sunspot AR2866 just produced a C8-class flare: image (Sept. 8 @ 1736 UT). The explosion caused a brief shortwave blackout over the Americas. The jury is still out on a possible CME.
UNEXPECTED SOLAR WIND GUST: A gust of solar wind hit Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 7th. The sharp uptick in solar wind speed was unexpected, arriving too soon to be the CME from an Earth-directed flare (B7-class) only two days earlier. Whatever it was, it made this happen:
"Just after midnight the sky suddenly exploded!" says photographer Ayumi Bakken of Fairbanks, Alaska. "After 1:30 a.m., it shifted to huge pulsating auroras all over the sky, that was so amazing."
The gust of solar wind was not as sharp as a CME, but it did carry some slightly-stronger-than-usual magnetic fields in its wake, much like a CME would. Let's call it "CME-like." Meanwhile, auroras have been reported over Iceland, Alaska, and Scotland, too.
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POINTY-EARED COFFEE CUP: It's the logical way to wake up in the morning: Coffee in a Mr. Spock Cup. It has pointy ears, holds 20 oz. of brew, and comes from the edge of space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew the cup to the stratosphere on Aug. 25th onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling Spock cups to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with greeting card showing the heavy-duty ceramic cup 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
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