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A CME is heading straight for Earth--see below. NASA and NOAA models agree that it will strike Earth on June 1st. The impact could spark a severe (G4-class) geomagnetic storm with auroras visible across Europe and many US states. This won't be as big as the famous May 2024 storm, but it could be one of the bigger events of Solar Cycle 25 if a severe storm materializes.
https://spaceweather.com/
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Big old sunspot 4100 finally exploded--and it was a doozy. On May 31st at 00:05 UTC, Earth-orbiting satellites detected an M8.2-class solar flare. The explosion lasted more than 3 hours:  A long-duration M8.2-class solar flare recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Although the flare was not technically X-class, it was close. Moreover, it was a slow explosion with lots of power "under the curve." The blast was able to lift a massive CME out of the sun's atmosphere. Indeed, shortly after the flare, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a bright halo CME heading directly for our planet:  This is a very fast-moving CME. Type II radio emissions from shock waves within the cloud suggest it is traveling 1,938 km/s or 4.3 million mph. When it strikes Earth, the CME could spark severe geomagnetic storms with auroras at mid- to low latitudes. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/ PROTONS ARE RAINING DOWN ON EARTH: Yesterday's X1.2-class solar flare accelerated a fusillade of energetic protons toward Earth, and they are now raining down on the upper atmosphere. For a while on May 13th, the downpour was intense enough to trigger an S1-class radiation storm warning, but today the proton rain is subsiding. Current radiation levels pose no threat to astronauts or air travelers. Radiation storm alerts: SMS Text STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY: After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again, with two strong solar flares erupting from opposite sides of the sun:  The first of these flares (X1.2) caused a brief shortwave blackout over the Americas and hurled a CME into space. A NASA model shows the CME hitting Mercury, grazing Venus, and completely missing Earth later this week.
The second flare (M5.3) caused a longer shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and probably hurled a CME into space. If so, it could have an Earth-directed component. Confirmation awaits fresh data from SOHO coronagraphs. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text https://spaceweather.com/ It never made sense. On Feb. 3rd, 2022, SpaceX launched a batch of 49 Starlinks to low-Earth orbit--something they had done many times before. This time was different, though. Almost immediately, dozens of the new satellites began to fall out of the sky.  Above: A Starlink satellite falls from the sky over Puerto Rico on Feb. 7, 2022. [video] At the time, SpaceX offered this explanation: "Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday (Feb. 3rd) were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday, (Feb. 4th)." A more accurate statement might have read "...impacted by a very minor geomagnetic storm." The satellites flew into a storm that barely registered on NOAA scales: It was a G1, the weakest possible, unlikely to cause a mass decay of satellites. Something about "The Starlink Incident" was not adding up. Space scientists Scott McIntosh and Robert Leamon of Lynker Space, Inc., have a new and different idea: "The Terminator did it," says McIntosh. Not to be confused with the killer robot, McIntosh's Terminator is an event on the sun that helps explain the mysterious progression of solar cycles. Four centuries after Galileo discovered sunspots, researchers still cannot accurately predict the timing and strength of the sun's 11-year solar cycle. Even "11 years" isn't real; observed cycles vary from less than 9 years to more than 14 years long.  Above: Oppositely charged bands of magnetism march toward the sun's equator where they "terminate" one another, kickstarting the next solar cycle. [more] McIntosh and Leamon realized that forecasters had been overlooking something. There is a moment that happens every 11 years or so when opposing magnetic fields from the sun's previous and upcoming solar cycles collide and cancel (see the animation, above). They called this moment, which signals the death of the old cycle, "The Termination Event." After a Termination Event, the sun roars to life–"like a hot stove where someone suddenly turns the burner on," McIntosh likes to say. Solar ultraviolet radiation abruptly jumps to a higher level, heating the upper atmosphere and dramatically increasing aerodynamic drag on satellites. This plot supports what McIntosh and Leamon are saying:  The histogram shows the number of objects falling out of Earth orbit each year since 1975. Vertical dashed lines mark Termination Events. There's an uptick in satellite decay around the time of every Terminator, none bigger than 2022.
As SpaceX was assembling the doomed Starlinks of Group 4-7 in early 2022, they had no idea that the Terminator Event had, in fact, just happened. Unwittingly, they launched the satellites into a radically altered near-space environment. "Some of our satellite partners said it was just pea soup up there," says Leamon. SpaceX wasn't the only company hit hard. Capella Space also struggled in 2022 to keep its constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in orbit. “The atmospheric density in low Earth orbit was 2 to 3 times more than expected,” wrote Capella Space's Scott Shambaugh in a paper entitled Doing Battle With the Sun. “This increase in drag threatened to prematurely de-orbit some of our spacecraft." Indeed, many did deorbit earlier than their 3-year design lifetimes. The Terminator did it? It makes more sense than a minor storm. SpaceX is about to launch an historic mission. Later today, March 31st, four astronauts led by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang will blast off from Cape Canaveral onboard a Falcon 9 rocket for the first-ever crewed spaceflight over the poles. During the 3-to-5 day mission, they will grow mushrooms in space, capture X-ray images of the human body in microgravity, and conduct 20 other science experiments. To watch the launch, tune into SpaceX's live stream starting at 8:46 p.m. Eastern Time.
https://spaceweather.com/ Yesterday, the sun surprised forecasters with a dramatic X1.1-class solar flare (March 28th @ 1520 UTC). The explosion caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas, and it hurled a massive CME into space. That CME will narrowly miss Earth. The sunspot that caused the flare (AR4046) is now turning toward Earth, so future explosions may be more effective.
https://spaceweather.com/ When the sun rose over Maine this morning, something was missing--about 85% of the sun. A solar eclipse was underway. "We witnessed an amazing 'horns of fire' eclipse," reports Fabrizio Melandri, who sends this picture from Monticello:  I had to withstand an air temperature of -10°C (14°F), but it was worth it," says Melandri. "Although the sun was covered for 85%, the sunrise was dazzling. After a few minutes, it was necessary to use a solar filter to protect my eyes from the glare." In New York, the eclipse was not as deep, but the sunrise was equally beautiful. Bob Kelly watched the show from Rye Beach, NY:  "The eclipsed sun beamed through some gaps in the cloud cover," says Kelly. "What a morning!"
We are receiving lots of photos from around the eclipse zone. Browse the gallery for the latest. https://spaceweather.com/ Surprising forecasters, today the sun produced a dramatic X1.1-class solar flare (March 28th @ 1520 UTC) with a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed massive plumes of plasma emerging from the blast site:  The source of the flare is a new sunspot emerging over the sun's eastern limb. This sunspot will turn toward Earth in the days ahead, putting our planet in the crosshairs of future eruptions. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/ The New Moon is about to pass in front of the sun, almost completely covering the solar disk on March 29th. The best places to watch this partial eclipse are eastern Canada and Greenland where coverage will exceed 80%:  At maximum eclipse around 10:50 UTC, the solar disk will be transformed into a skinny crescent. Some reporters call this a "devil horn eclipse," but the view will be heavenly. If you're in the eclipse zone, check NASA's web page for a city-by-city timetable of when to look. (Be sure to use safe solar filters and/or eclipse glasses.)
Longtime space weather contributor Eliot Herman is in Greenland now, and he will be sending us photos of the event. https://spaceweather.com/ Todd Perelmuter
1,335,042 views Jul 12, 2023 Carrying all of life on our shoulders is too much to bear for any of us. But each of us can rise to meet this moment, right here, right now. With each inhale, we can welcome each new moment. With each exhale, we can let it go. At times, our lives can feel dark and chaotic. It can feel like nothing goes right and that we are cursed. But the dark times are nothing more than little dots peppered onto the vast timeline of our lives. The dots don't take up much space, but they can cast large shadows. The deeper we can live each moment, the more joy and peace we can invite into our lives. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday. It doesn't matter what will happen tomorrow. We are not our mistakes, nor are we our successes. We are this one, eternal, priceless moment. The more we take care of this moment with mindful awareness, the more we tend to it with care and love, the more our lives can blossom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO3ovPHEY7c Most bolts of lightning go down toward the Earth. But, sometimes, they go in the other direction, too. On Nov. 19, 2024, astronauts onboard the ISS watched a Gigantic Jet rocket up from the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America):  Puerto Rican sprite chaser Frankie Lucena noticed the rare bolt while he was browsing NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. "I checked the ISS database for pictures before and after the event, and found that there were 4 photos in all," says Lucena. "I've animated them here."
Sometimes called "Earth's tallest lightning," because they reach the ionosphere more than 50 miles high, Gigantic Jets were discovered near Taiwan and Puerto Rico in 2001-2002. Since then, only dozens have been photographed. They seem to love storms over water and are famous for surprising passengers onboard commercial aircraft. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research. https://spaceweather.com/ |
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