Space Weather

[thelufias]

I keep saying "ONE OF THESE DAYS" ....... 

[Jherrith]

LONG DURATION SOLAR FLARE: Today began with an explosion on the sun. Minutes after UT midnight, sunspot AR2849 erupted, producing a long-duration C4-class flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the ultraviolet flash:



An hour-long pulse of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, disrupting the usual propagation of radio waves over the Pacific Ocean. Mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators may have noticed sudden drops in signal strength at frequencies below 20 MHz blackout map
The explosion also hurled a CME into space:. The cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth

[Jherrith]

WAITING FOR THE CME: A CME expected to sideswipe Earth's magnetic field on July 23rd did not arrive on time. It might have missed, or it may yet deliver a glancing blow later today. There is a slight chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms in response to a tardy arrival on July 24th

[Jherrith]

ALPHA CAPRICORNID METEOR SHOWER: Today, meteor storms are rare, but a few hundred years from now they could be commonplace. Consider this fireball, recorded by Thomas Ashcraft on July 21st, a preview of things to come:



"This is a probable alpha Capricornid," says Ashcraft, who operates an automated meteor camera in rural New Mexico. "It was magnitude -11, about as bright as a waxing gibbous Moon." Next: Turn up the volume. The soundtrack is a 54.309 MHz digital TV signal reflected from the fireball's ionized trail.

Alpha Capricornid meteors are debris from Comet 169P/NEAT. They appear every year in late July, peaking around the July-August boundary with 5 to 9 meteors per hour. Many "alpha Caps" are slow, bright fireballs.

This is a minor shower today, but in the not-too-distant future, it could turn into a regular meteor storm. Researchers Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute) and Jeremie Vaubaillon (Paris Observatory) have studied the alpha Capricornid debris stream. They believe it resulted from a major fragmentation event ~5000 years ago when as much as half of the original comet disintegrated. Since then, the debris has been drifting toward Earth.



"In the next 300 years, the alpha Capricornids are likely to grow into a major annual shower," they write in an article in the Astronomical Journal. "Rates will increase dramatically in the 23rd and 24th centuries to a peak of ZHR = 2200/hr on an annual basis, half the visible shower peak rate during the 1999 Leonid storm."

If they're right, every alpha Capricornid we see today heralds a storm to come. Watch for them in the nights ahead slowly spilling out of the constellation Capricornus. The best time to look is during the hours around midnight when the shower's radiant may be found in the southern sky beautifully bracketed by Jupiter and Saturn: sky map.

Bonus: Another meteor shower, the southern Delta Aquarids (SDAs), also peaks in late July, sending streaks of light from the same general part of the sky. SDAs zip along ~twice as fast as alpha Caps and tend to be fainter. Nevertheless, they will add to your midnight meteor count. Enjoy!

[thelufias]

When I read that in my Newsletter I said WOW...and WOE....all at once....  This is the year of SUN news and then some...

[Jherrith]

FARSIDE EXPLOSION TOUCHES EARTH: Imagine an explosion on the farside of the sun so powerful, we could feel it here on Earth. It happened on July 13th. The debris emerged in a circular cloud known as a halo CME . Despite the face that the body of the sun blocked the explosion, energetic particles still peppered Earth: full story .

[Jherrith]

ANOTHER MAGNIFICENT HALO CME: It just happened again. On July 16th, a magnificent halo CME billowed away from the farside of the sun. This is the 3rd such explosion in the last three days:



This is a sign of continued activity from a hidden farside sunspot group. The active region could turn to face Earth within the next week

[thelufias]

LOL.....Yup...it's saying "OH OH"  LOLOL

[Jherrith]

Didn't see that before ... but it sure do

[Aelin]

FIRST X-FLARE IN 4 YEARS: A new sunspot emerged during the early hours of July 3rd and promptly exploded, producing the first X-class solar flare since Sept. 2017. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:



Today's explosion registered X1.5 on the Richter Scale of Solar Flares

A pulse of X-rays briefly ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean: blackout map. Mariners, aviators, and amateur radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects below 30 MHz just after 1429 UT

The source of this flare is an un-numbered sunspot now growing near the sun's northwestern limb. Yesterday it did not even exist, highlighting the unpredictability of solar activity.

With this capture, Sun seems like an unhappy smiley