GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible today, Jan. 17th, when a CME is expected to graze Earth's magnetic field. The storm cloud was hurled in our direction by a C4-class solar flare from sunspot AR2925 on Jan. 14th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
VOLCANIC SHOCKWAVE RIPPLES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA: If you have a backyard weather station, you might have detected this weekend's volcanic eruption near Tonga. The undersea blast hurled a plume of sulfurous ash all the way to the stratosphere. Satellite videos show an atmospheric shockwave expanding on all sides of the plume.
Astronomer Matt Penn and colleagues decided to investigate further. "We plotted the times of barometric pressure peaks from 150 backyard weather stations available on Weather Underground," he explains. This movie sequence shows the data they found:
Credit: Claude Plymate, Mike Conley, Geri Hall-Conley, Jonathan Mangin and Matt Penn
"White dots mark the arrival of the shock wave during the five hour interval 11:30 UT to 16:30 UT," explains Penn. "There were some very large amplitude differences! We clearly saw that the wave was severely reduced by crossing the Rockies. I think it would be very interesting to look at a smaller region, measure amplitudes, and track the reduction as the wave moves from California through the Rockies and onto the Great Plains. There is a gold mine in the Weather Underground data set."
"We looked at only 150 sites," Penn continues. "There are thousands of sites that show the pressure wave and lots of cool science projects that could be done. I hope this inspires more people to take a look!"
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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SUNSPOT SUNRISE: Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying. You can see it in the sunrise. "I photographed four sunspot groups when the sun came up this morning," reports Daisuke Tomiyasu, who sends this picture from Higashinada, Kobe, Japan
"Thin clouds drifting over the mountains dimmed the sun enough for this unfiltered photos at 7:12 a.m. local time," says Tomiyasu.
Warning: Even when the sun is dimmed by low-hanging clouds or haze, it can still be dangerously bright, especially when magnified by unfiltered optics. If you chose to photograph the low sun, as Tomiyasu did, use the camera's LCD screen for safe viewfinding. Never look at the sun through the eyepiece of an unfiltered camera.
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"I LOVE YOU MORE" MOONSTONE PENDANT: Valentine's Day is coming! Nothing says "I love you" like a moonstone from space. This one hitched a ride on an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon, floating 112,201 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $142.95. The students are selling these sterling silver infinity-wrapped moonstone pendants to support their ballooning program. Engraved with "I Love You More," it makes a romantic Valentine's gift. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the moonstone in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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