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ST. PATRICK'S DAY
GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Arriving
earlier than expected, a CME hit Earth's magnetic
field on March 17th at approximately 04:30 UT. At
first, the
impact sparked a relatively mild G1-class
(Kp=5) geomagnetic storm. Since then, however, the
storm has intensified to G4-class (Kp=8), ranking
it as the strongest geomagnetic storm of the
current solar cycle. This storm is underway
now. Before sunrise on St. Patrick's
Day, bright auroras were sighted over several
northern-tier US states including Minnesota,
Wisconsin,
Montana,
the
Dakotas and Washington.
Marketa Murray sends this picture from Dalton
Highway in Alaska:

"The auroras were insane," says
Marketa who regularly runs a photography workshop
on the Arctic Circle. She has seen a lot of
auroras. "I have never seen anything like
this."
This storm could continue for many
hours to come as Earth passes through the
turbulent wake of the CME. Stay tuned for updates.
Geomagnetic storm
alerts: text,
voice
Realtime
Aurora Photo
Gallery
SPACE YEAST:
Today, March 17th,
Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth
to Sky Calculus are flying a Space Weather
Buoy into the geomagnetic storm to measure the
effect of the CME's impact on cosmic rays in the
stratosphere. Along with radiation detectors and
other sensors, the payload will carry some
hitchhikers--brewer's and baker's yeast:

This
picture shows packets of yeast flown to the edge
of space last week. More of the microbes will fly
today to experience the geomagnetic storm.
During their ascent to the stratosphere, they will
receive a dose of cosmic rays at least 40 times
Earth-normal.
What can you do with Space Yeast?
Bake space bread, brew space beer, or whip up any
recipe that calls for yeast. Also, teachers and
homeschoolers can conduct some cool classroom
experiments.
If you would like a packet of
space yeast, you can have one by making a donation
of $49.95 to Earth to Sky Calculus. Every flown
packet comes with a control packet that remained
behind on Earth during the flight, so you can
conduct a properly-controlled scientific
experiment. All proceeds support student space
weather research. Contact Dr.
Tony Phillips to place your order.
BRIGHT FIREBALL, POSSIBLE
METEORITE FALL: On March 15th, a
meteor
exploded over southern Germany. The
shadow-casting fireball was brighter than the full
Moon and it produced loud sonic booms – a sign
that it penetrated deep in the atmosphere and
may have dropped meteorites on the ground.
Attracted by the sounds, astrophotographer Hans
Hopf of Bavaria, Germany, turned his camera to the
sky just in time to capture a plume of debris
twisting in the winds overhead:

"I could see the 'smoke' twisting
and turning through the constellation Orion for
more than 20 minutes after the meteor exploded,"
says Hopf. "The field of view of these images is
about 10 degrees. The bright star is Betelgeuse
(Alpha Orionis)."
The International Meteor
Organization is gathering eyewitness reports
through their new online
reporting tool. European readers, if you
witnessed this event, please report it. Your
sighting could help pinpoint the landing zone of
possible meteorites.
Realtime
Space Weather
Photo Gallery
Realtime
Comet Photo
Gallery
Every night, a
network of NASA
all-sky cameras scans
the skies above the United
States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated
software
maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office
calculates their
orbits, velocity, penetration depth
in Earth's atmosphere and many
other characteristics.
Daily results are presented here on
Spaceweather.com.
On Mar. 17, 2015, the network reported
15 fireballs.
(15
sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar
system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a
single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded
by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger
image] [movies]
Potentially Hazardous
Asteroids (
PHAs)
are space rocks
larger than approximately 100m that
can come closer to Earth than 0.05
AU. None of the
known PHAs is on a collision course with our
planet, although
astronomers are finding
new
ones all the
time.
On
March 17, 2015
there were
potentially
hazardous asteroids.
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid
encounters:
Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss
Distance |
Size |
2015
EO |
Mar 15 |
2.8 LD |
20 m |
2015
EG7 |
Mar 20 |
2.7 LD |
13 m |
2015
FC |
Mar 26 |
2.9 LD |
19 m |
2063
Bacchus |
Apr 7 |
76 LD |
1.6 km |
5381
Sekhmet |
May 17 |
62.8 LD |
2.1
km |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD
= 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals
0.00256 AU. MAG is
the visual magnitude of the asteroid on
the date of closest
approach.
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The
official
U.S. government space weather
bureau |
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The
first place
to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and
related phenomena. |
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Researchers
call it a
"Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar
observatory ever. |
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3D
views of the
sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations
Observatory |
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Realtime
and archival
images of the Sun from
SOHO. |
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from
the NOAA
Space Environment Center |
|
the
underlying
science of space weather |