The Sun just erupted in one of the largest, coolest, most incredible Solar Flare & Coronal Mass ejections that I've ever seen. It came from giant Sunspot AR2665 which has luckily for us turned away from the Sun. But it will be rolling back around just in time for the major August Eclipse of Summer 2017 on the 21st at around a pm. The Oceans are very active also.
This is a crazy time to be alive,
God bless everyone,
T
https://www.paypal.me/THORnews
@newTHOR on twitter
https://www.facebook.com/thornewsgo
from spaceweather
BLANK AND QUIET SUN: Today, the sun is blank (no sunspots) for the 5th day in a row. This stretch of spotlessness is propelling the sun even deeper into Solar Minimum. NOAA forecasters say the chance of a significant solar flare in the next three days is no more than 1%. Free: Aurora Alerts
SPRITES AND COSMIC RAYS: Last night, cameras in Czechia recorded a magnificent display of sprites leaping up from a thunderstorm in neighboring Austria. Photographer Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czechia, selected this specimen from many frames he recorded:
lol
Lights Over lapland is excited to announce that Autumn Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today!
BLANK AND QUIET SUN: Today, the sun is blank (no sunspots) for the 5th day in a row. This stretch of spotlessness is propelling the sun even deeper into Solar Minimum. NOAA forecasters say the chance of a significant solar flare in the next three days is no more than 1%. Free: Aurora Alerts
SPRITES AND COSMIC RAYS: Last night, cameras in Czechia recorded a magnificent display of sprites leaping up from a thunderstorm in neighboring Austria. Photographer Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czechia, selected this specimen from many frames he recorded:
"The storm was about 390km away," says Popek, "and the sprite was huge. It stretched 50 km to 90 km above the ground below."
Sometimes called "space lightning," sprites are a true space weather phenomenon. They inhabit the upper atmosphere alongside auroras, meteors and noctilucent clouds. Some researchers believe they are linked to cosmic rays: subatomic particles from deep space striking the top of Earth's atmosphere produce secondary electrons that, in turn, could provide the spark that triggers sprites.
The link to cosmic rays is particularly interesting at this time. Despite a brief reduction in cosmic rays last week caused by the sweeping action of a passing CME, cosmic rays are intensifying. For the past two years, space weather balloons have observed a steady increase in deep space radiation penetrating our atmosphere. This increase is largely due to the decline in the solar cycle. Flagging solar wind pressure and weakening sunspot magnetic fields allow more cosmic rays into the inner solar system--a trend which is expected to continue for years to come. These changes could add up to more sprites.
Although sprites have been seen for at least a century, most scientists did not believe they existed until after 1989 when sprites were photographed by cameras onboard the space shuttle. Now "sprite chasers" routinely photograph sprites from their own homes. "I used up a Watec 910HX security camera with UFOCapture software to catch my sprites," says Popek. Give it a try!
Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery
CME SWEEPS ASIDE COSMIC RAYS: On July 16th, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field, sparking two days of geomagnetic storms and beautiful southern auroras. The solar storm cloud also swept aside some of the cosmic rays currently surrounding Earth. Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a space weather balloon to the stratosphere hours after the CME arrived. We detected a 7% decrease in X-rays and gamma-rays (two tracers of secondary cosmic rays). Neutron monitors in the Arctic and Antarctic recorded similar decrements. For instance, these data from the Bartol Research Institute show a nearly 8% drop in cosmic ray neutrons reaching the South Pole:
This is called a "Forbush Decrease," named after physicist Scott E. Forbush who first described it in the 20th century. Wherever CMEs go, cosmic rays are deflected by magnetic fields inside the solar storm clouds. As a result, when solar activity is high, cosmic radiation around Earth is relatively low--a yin-yang relationship that holds throughout all phases of the solar cycle.
Lately, cosmic rays around Earth have been intensifying as the solar cycle plunges toward minimum. The CME of July 16th reversed that trend--but only for a few days. Solar activity has returned to low levels and cosmic rays are on the rise again.
Why do we care about cosmic rays? For one thing, they penetrate commercial airlines, dosing passengers and flight crews so much that pilots are classified as occupational radiation workers. Some
This is a crazy time to be alive,
God bless everyone,
T
https://www.paypal.me/THORnews
@newTHOR on twitter
https://www.facebook.com/thornewsgo
from spaceweather
BLANK AND QUIET SUN: Today, the sun is blank (no sunspots) for the 5th day in a row. This stretch of spotlessness is propelling the sun even deeper into Solar Minimum. NOAA forecasters say the chance of a significant solar flare in the next three days is no more than 1%. Free: Aurora Alerts
SPRITES AND COSMIC RAYS: Last night, cameras in Czechia recorded a magnificent display of sprites leaping up from a thunderstorm in neighboring Austria. Photographer Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czechia, selected this specimen from many frames he recorded:
lol
Lights Over lapland is excited to announce that Autumn Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today!
BLANK AND QUIET SUN: Today, the sun is blank (no sunspots) for the 5th day in a row. This stretch of spotlessness is propelling the sun even deeper into Solar Minimum. NOAA forecasters say the chance of a significant solar flare in the next three days is no more than 1%. Free: Aurora Alerts
SPRITES AND COSMIC RAYS: Last night, cameras in Czechia recorded a magnificent display of sprites leaping up from a thunderstorm in neighboring Austria. Photographer Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czechia, selected this specimen from many frames he recorded:
"The storm was about 390km away," says Popek, "and the sprite was huge. It stretched 50 km to 90 km above the ground below."
Sometimes called "space lightning," sprites are a true space weather phenomenon. They inhabit the upper atmosphere alongside auroras, meteors and noctilucent clouds. Some researchers believe they are linked to cosmic rays: subatomic particles from deep space striking the top of Earth's atmosphere produce secondary electrons that, in turn, could provide the spark that triggers sprites.
The link to cosmic rays is particularly interesting at this time. Despite a brief reduction in cosmic rays last week caused by the sweeping action of a passing CME, cosmic rays are intensifying. For the past two years, space weather balloons have observed a steady increase in deep space radiation penetrating our atmosphere. This increase is largely due to the decline in the solar cycle. Flagging solar wind pressure and weakening sunspot magnetic fields allow more cosmic rays into the inner solar system--a trend which is expected to continue for years to come. These changes could add up to more sprites.
Although sprites have been seen for at least a century, most scientists did not believe they existed until after 1989 when sprites were photographed by cameras onboard the space shuttle. Now "sprite chasers" routinely photograph sprites from their own homes. "I used up a Watec 910HX security camera with UFOCapture software to catch my sprites," says Popek. Give it a try!
Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery
CME SWEEPS ASIDE COSMIC RAYS: On July 16th, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field, sparking two days of geomagnetic storms and beautiful southern auroras. The solar storm cloud also swept aside some of the cosmic rays currently surrounding Earth. Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a space weather balloon to the stratosphere hours after the CME arrived. We detected a 7% decrease in X-rays and gamma-rays (two tracers of secondary cosmic rays). Neutron monitors in the Arctic and Antarctic recorded similar decrements. For instance, these data from the Bartol Research Institute show a nearly 8% drop in cosmic ray neutrons reaching the South Pole:
This is called a "Forbush Decrease," named after physicist Scott E. Forbush who first described it in the 20th century. Wherever CMEs go, cosmic rays are deflected by magnetic fields inside the solar storm clouds. As a result, when solar activity is high, cosmic radiation around Earth is relatively low--a yin-yang relationship that holds throughout all phases of the solar cycle.
Lately, cosmic rays around Earth have been intensifying as the solar cycle plunges toward minimum. The CME of July 16th reversed that trend--but only for a few days. Solar activity has returned to low levels and cosmic rays are on the rise again.
Why do we care about cosmic rays? For one thing, they penetrate commercial airlines, dosing passengers and flight crews so much that pilots are classified as occupational radiation workers. Some
Category
License
- Standard YouTube License
Posts
COMMENTS • 73