POSSIBLE EARTH-DIRECTED CME (UPDATED): Yesterday, June 4th, a magnetic filament erupted from the sun's southern hemisphere: movie. The eruption hurled a CME into space and possibly toward Earth. A NASA model suggests a glancing blow on June 7th (NOAA models say June 8th), possibly causing G1-class geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
THEY'RE BACK! NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: The summer season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) has begun. "They're back with a bang!' says Arnim Berhorst who saw the electric-blue clouds over Bergen, Norway--one of at least seven European countries where they were observed last night. Valther Jørgensen sends this picture from Djursland, Denmark:
"These luminous night clouds appeared for the first time over Denmark this summer," says Jørgensen.
NLCs are clouds of frosted meteor smoke. They form every year in summer when wisps of sunwarmed water vapor rise up to the edge of space. At altitudes greater than 80 km, the water crystallizes around disintegrated meteoroids, forming beautiful electric-blue structures.
Although these are the first NLCs seen from the ground, Earth-orbiting satellites have been monitoring them for more than a week. The NOAA-21 satellite saw them first on May 26th. In this 3 day animation, blue dots mark the location of clouds deep inside the Arctic Circle:
Image credit: Matt DeLand // NOAA-21 OMPS LP instrument
This is typical. NLCs always form first over the poles where temperatures are coldest--a necessity for making water molecules stick to meteoroids. From there, the clouds multiply and spread outward. In only 3 days (May 26, May 27, May 28), NOAA-21 saw cloud counts increase from 14 to 104 as they drifted south toward Europe.
Last night's sightings are just the beginning. Noctilucent cloud season typically runs from June to August. The clouds tend to brighten and become most widespread around the summer solstice, with sightings in recent years as far south as Spain and southern California. If you see an NLC, submit your photo here.
more images: from Krzysztof Spera of Warsaw, Poland; from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna Sweden; from Pentti Arpalahti of Helsinki, Finland; from Roberts Lazdins of Rude, Latvia; from Andy Stables of Milovaig, Glendale, Isle of Skye;
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FAR OUT FATHER'S DAY GIFT: If Capt. Kirk used a flask, this would be it. Inscribed with the words "To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before," the sterling silver container flew to the stratosphere on June 4, 2023, onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $122.95. During the flight, the flask experienced temperatures as low as -59 C. It was still cold to the touch when students retrieved it 30 minutes after landing in Pine Creek Canyon in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Bishop CA.
The flask comes with a greeting card showing itself in flight, and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. It makes a great Father's Day gift for Trekkie dads!
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