
Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called " Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-year low: Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. These balloons are equipped with sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost once a week, and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distanceīetween Earth and the Moon. Made by Hallmark in the 1990s, the ornament comes with a greeting card showing the science officer in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.Īll sales support hands-on STEM education The students are selling Spock ornaments to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. 22, 2022, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched Spock to the stratosphere on board a cosmic ray research balloon: SPOCK ORNAMENT: It's the logical way to decorate your Christmas tree-with a rare Mr. Instead, the CMEs appear to have arrived one at a time, creating outbursts of light from Scandinavia to Canada.Ĭlick on the links for more examples: from Miquel Such of Abisko, Sweden from Marianne Bergli of Troms, Norway from Markus Varik of Tromsø, Norway from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden from Catalin Tapardel of Alberta, Canada from Franz Josef Natschlaeger of Sandviken, Sweden from Hanna Berger of Andenes, Norway 4th-a potent mash-up of lesser CMEs that left the sun in late Sept. Forecasters expected such a CME to arrive on Oct. The combined clouds contain tangled magnetic fields that do a good job sparking auroras.


Merzlyakov's photo shows that cannibalism is not required for a great display.Ĭannibal CMEs form when a fast-moving CME devours one or more slower CMEs ahead of it. "Absolutely insane red pillars showed up above Limfjord in my hometown in Denmark," reports photographer Ruslan Merzlyakov. 3rd and 4th seem to contain signatures from multiple CMEs. It might have arrived in bits and pieces. Aurora alerts: SMS TextĭECONSTRUCTING A CANNIBAL CME: Yesterday, a Cannibal CME was supposed to hit Earth. If the CME does strike Earth it could happen as early as Oct. Coronagraph data for this event remain patchy, however, which adds uncertainty to the forecast. Update: NOAA analysts have modeled the emergent CME and determined that a glancing blow to Earth's magnetosphere is possible on Oct. The missing data should arrive later today.
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SOHO coronagraphs saw hints of a CME emerging from the blast site-but the data stream stopped before the full CME was visible. Snapping like a rubber band, it hurled part of itself into space:ĭebris from the blast might be heading for Earth. 4th, a 200,000-km long filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere erupted. OH SNAP! A MAGNETIC FILAMENT ERUPTS (UPDATED): Yesterday, Oct.

Any eruptions will be geoeffective as the sunspot is almost directly faciing Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a 65% chance of M-flares and a 30% chance of X-flares today. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining-a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays.ĬHANCE OF FLARES TODAY: Behemoth sunspot AR3112 is poised to explode. Credit: SDO/HMIĬosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is beginning, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Sunspot AR3112 has a delta-class magnetic field that poses a threat for X-class solar flares.
