SpaceWeather.com Archive — Thu, Jun 13, 2024

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POLAR CAP ABSORPTION EVENT: For the second day in a row, protons from the sun are raining down on Earth. This is causing a shortwave radio blackout inside the Arctic Circle--also known as a polar cap absorption event. The protons are being funneled toward the Arctic by Earth's magnetic field; their ionizing effect extinguishes shortwave transmissions at all frequencies below 30 MHz. This event should last for another 24 to 48 hours. You can monitor its progress here.

SOLAR MAX NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are spilling out of the Arctic to lower latitudes. Marek Nikodem spotted the electric-blue clouds at midnight (June 11-12) over Szubin, Poland (+53N):

"These are our first noctilucent clouds of the season here in Poland," says Nikodem. "It was a very nice display."

2024 is supposed to be a bad year for NLCs. High solar activity is warming Earth's upper atmosphere and breaking apart water molecules required to form noctilucent ices. However, for reasons researchers don't fully understand, Solar Max doesn't always extinquish the clouds. The descent of NLCs to Poland suggests that 2024 may be a year when night-shining clouds defy the sun.

Did you see a "Solar Max NLC"? Please submit your images here.

more images: from François Roger van Loo of Genk, Belgium; from Evelina Beliakaite of Tryskiai, Lithuania;

Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
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HANDMADE TOTAL ECLIPSE PENDANT: On April 8, 2024, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray research balloon to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. This handmade pendant went along for the ride. Floating more than 118,110 feet high, the it spent 3 minutes and 45 seconds wrapped in the shadow of the Moon:

You can have it for $179.95. Created by an artist in Texas where totality occured, the pendant displays a solar eclipse art print sealed under a smooth glass cover. It comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space during the total eclipse.