"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. All rights reserved.Sunspots AR3088 and AR3089 are crackling with M-class solar flares. A northwest swell is building into the region today producing fun sized surf through Thursday along north facing shores.Ĭopyright 2022 Hawaii News Now. The south swell energy continues to decline through Wednesday. Surf along west facing shores will remain elevated due to the long period south swell wrapping along the western sides of each island. The High Surf Advisory (HSA) will remain in effect through the day for all south facing shores. The current long period south swell will slowly decrease later today. Trade winds will rebuild late Thursday and Friday and may become breezy next weekend. Daytime sea breezes will lead to afternoon clouds and scattered leeward and interior showers. Humidity will rise and windward portions of all islands will experience an uptick in rainfall. Expect the initial increase in rainfall to affect windward Big Island and Maui today, while modest rainfall persists over windward Oahu and Kauai. Those winds will begin a gradual decline today as an area of moisture brings an increase in rainfall to mainly windward portions of the Big Island and Maui. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - One more day of sunshine and stable moderate trade winds.