28th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon, 109,228 feet above California's Sierra Nevada: Aurora alerts: SMS TextĪMBER DRAGONFLY SPACE PENDANT: This dragonfly has touched space. They contain CME-like shocks that open cracks and spark strong Arctic auroras. CIRs are transition zones between fast- and slow-moving streams of solar wind. The 'crack' was formed by the impact of a co-rotating interaction region (CIR). 'Shortly after the Moon rose and lit up the landscape, the aurora borealis decided to make a powerful appearance.' 'Our guests had a fantastic display here tonight in Arctic Norway,' says Percival. Northern lights tour guide Chris Percival photographed the display over Vesterålen, Norway: Solar wind poured through the gap and fueled the first auroras of 2024. 1st, a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field. G1-class geomagnetic storms are likely when the CME arrives. The CME was hurled into space by the strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25, an X5-class explosion on New Year's Eve. Normally, grazing impacts have little effect, but this one might be different. As the season progresses, these dots will multiply in number and shift in hue from blue to red as the brightness of the clouds intensifies.īRACE FOR IMPACT: A CME is expected to graze Earth's magnetic field today, Jan. For the rest of the season, daily maps from NOAA 21 will be presented here:Įach dot is a detected cloud. An instrument onboard NOAA 21 ( OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as 'polar mesospheric clouds' or PMCs). The first clouds were detected inside the Antarctic Circle on Dec. The southern season for NLCs is underway. 2, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is too warm for Type II polar stratospheric clouds. NASA's MEERA-2 climate model predicts when the air up there is cold enough: Credit: SDO/AIAĬolorful Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops to a staggeringly low -85C. Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on Jan 2, 2024. Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica 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. Credit: SDO/HMIĬosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere.

Sunspot AR3536 has a 'delta-class' magnetic field that poses a continued threat for strong X-class solar flares.

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