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. The 10mm cultured white pearl, surrounded by a crystalline splash of spring-green cubic zirconia, spent more than 2 hours in the stratosphere as sensors in the payload measured cosmic rays.Įach purchase comes with a greeting card showing the pearl in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.Īll sales support hands-on STEM education Here it is, floating 111,202 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California: THE VERNAL EQUINOX PEARL: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Vernal Equinox Pearl, launched to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. I managed this shot of the road lit by a passing car and the skies lit by a passing solar breeze." But we had clear skies and as I was driving down the road I noticed the sky turning green. "There wasn't even a geomagnetic storm," says Mathews.
26th, Christopher Mathews photographed this display west of Seljalandsfoss: With a CME bearing down on Earth, midnight skies in Iceland are getting dark enough to see auroras. SUMMER AURORAS IN ICELAND: Perfect timing. Meanwhile, sunspot AR3088 is growing and seems poised to unleash an X-flare. Even glancing-blow CMEs can spark geomagnetic storms, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Aug. The disagreement highlights the uncertainty of the forecast. 28th:Ī similar NASA model shows the CME completely missing Earth. NOAA forecast models suggest that the CME will sweep up another CME in front of it, possibly forming a " cannibal CME." The combined pair could sideswipe our planet's magnetic field during the late UT hours of Aug. Indeed, SOHO coronagraphs have detected a CME emerging from the blast site. Shock waves like this one usually hurl a CME into space. The blast sent a towering shock wave through the sun's atmosphere, recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:Ībove: The shock wave from an M4-class solar flare on Aug 27th (0240 UT). The strongest today, so far, is an M4-class flare from "perpendicular sunspot" AR3088. SOLAR FLARE AND CME: For the second day in a row, the sun is crackling with M-class solar flares. Glancing blow could spark G1-class geomagnetic storms starting on the 28th and stretching into Aug. NOAA analysts have determined that it will likely hit Earth's magnetic field during the late hours of Aug. GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (UPDATED): Today's M4-class solar flare, described below, hurled a CME into space. 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 beginning, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Sunspots AR3088 and AR3089 are crackling with M-class solar flares.