CIR SPARKS G2-CLASS GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Last night, Earth lit up like a Christmas tree with auroras at both poles. The reason: A co-rotating interaction region (CIR) hit our planet's magnetic field. "The display in New Zealand was one for the ages," reports Ian Griffin from Hoopers Inlet on the Otago Peninsula:
"The aurora kept pulsing and, just as you thought it was going to end it exploded into life again," he says. "What a night!"
Many sky watchers have never heard of "CIRs". They form in the interstices between solar wind streams, especially where fast streams blow through slower-moving streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing shock-like structures that mimic CMEs.
NOAA correctly predicted the arrival of a CIR on June 15th. Its impact opened a crack in our planet's magnetic field and sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm that persisted through June 16th.
Because of the northern summer sun, Arctic observers couldn't see the show. Some auroras, however, did spill into the darkness at lower latitudes. Jeff Berkes sends this photo from Cape Cod, Massachusetts:
"The lights were faint at first, then really juiced up around midnight," says Berkes. "I could see these pillars with the naked eye from Highland Lighthouse."
Did you miss the storm? Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service received an instant text message when the CIR arrived. It announced itself by the crack it formed in Earth's magnetic field. PRO PLAN subscribers were thus able to prepare for the subsequent geomagnetic storm.
more images: from Philip Granrud of Whitefish, Montana; from Kalyky of Custer County, Montana; from Didier Walliang of Quesnoy-le-Montant, France; from Jamie McBean of Herne Bay, Kent, UK; from Ian Carstairs of Harleston, Norfolk, UK;
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
"I LOVE YOU FOREVER" MOONSTONE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the "I Love You Forever" Moonstone. This one hitched a ride to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research ballooin on May 13th:
You can have it for $162.95. The moonstone's sterling silver infinity wrap is inscribed with the words "I love you forever." It makes a great anniversary or birthday gift. The moonstone comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight, telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN CREATE CLOUDS: This is a story about AI. It didn't start that way, though. On May 28th, an unusual weather system blanketed the UK. Cirrostratus clouds containing a rare mixture of gem-like ice crystals filled the sky. Sunlight shining through the crystals produced a stunning variety of ice halos widely seen and reported on BBC news.
During the display, R. J. Cobain of Conlig, Northern Ireland, spun around on his lawn taking as many pictures as he could. "By combining 11 photos I was able to capture a full parhelic circle," says Cobain.
Circling the zenith in a majestic arc, full parhelic circles are among the rarest of ice halos. They require as many as five internal reflections from millions of individual ice crytals, all catching sunbeams simultaneously. "This was by far the best display of atmospheric optics I have ever seen," Cobain says.
There was only one problem with Cobain's excellent photo. He forgot to photograph the zenith. The black gap bothered him.
"I decided to use OpenAI's DALL-E tool to fill in the gap in the panorama," says Cobain. "The prompt was just 'wispy cirrostratus clouds against a dark blue sky'." Here is the result:
"Scary how it convincingly continued with the slightly darker sky behind the 46 degree halo (a detail you wouldn't expect the AI to know)," he says.
DALL-E is the visual version of ChatGPT. It creates images from text. "It is an extension of the GPT-3 language model, designed specifically for the task of image synthesis," according to OpenAI. "DALL-E combines techniques from computer vision and natural language processing to create unique and novel images."
Cobain was not trying to decieve anyone by letting AI fill in the gap. He just wanted to see if it could do a good job. Scary good is more like it.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter