According to a study from the Harvard T.H. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. 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. Each one comes with greeting card showing the heavy-duty ceramic cup in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.Īll sales support hands-on STEM education The students are selling Spock cups to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this cup to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon: of brew, and comes from the edge of space. You can now give dad the gift of coffee in a Mr. SPOCK COFFEE CUP: Father's Day is coming. That's too dim to see with the unaided eye, but, as Murtagh's photo shows, it is an easy target for backyard telescopes even in urban areas. The expanding fireball has since brightened 40-fold to magnitude +11. A shock wave escaped the dying star on May 19th (Earth time), creating a 15th magnitude fireball first noticed by Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan. SN 2023ixf is a Type II supernova caused by the core collapse of a massive star. "I had great views of the supernova through my EVscope Equinox 2," he says. "The supernova was easily visible in my telescope despite the bright lights of the city," reports Terence Murtagh. Turns out, that's bright enough to see from downtown London. Veles of Kyiv, Ukraine from Apollo Lasky of Naperville, ILĪ SUPERNOVA IN LONDON: A week after it exploded in a spiral arm of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), new supernova SN 2023ixf has finally peaked in brightness at magnitude +11. A full-fledged flare may not be far behind. Opposite polarities bump together, reconnect, and-boom. A single Ellerman bomb releases about 10 26 ergs of energy-equal to about 100,000 World War II atomic bombs.Įxplosions like these are a sign of magnetic complexity in a sunspot. They are named after physicist Ferdinand Ellerman who studied the tiny blasts in the early 20th century. A handful are circled above for reference. These are Ellerman bombs-magnetic explosions about one-millionth as powerful as true solar flares. Maximilian Teodorescu photographed the fast-growing active region yesterday and found it crackling with bomb-blasts: Now it is the biggest and most dangerous sunspot on the solar disk. Solar flare alerts: SMS TextĮLLERMAN BOMBS: At the beginning of the week, sunspot AR3315 didn't exist. This could herald a period of geoeffective solar activity in June. Helioseismic maps reveal the active region about 10 days away from turning toward Earth. 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.įARSIDE SUNSPOT: There's a sunspot on the farside of the sun so large, it is affecting the way the whole sun vibrates. Credit: SDO/HMIĬosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Sunspot AR3315 has continued to grow, becoming the largest and most dangerous sunspot on the solar disk.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |