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NASA’S Parker Probe is on a mission to “touch the sun.” It’s orbiting, with each trip around a bit closer than the previous.

Parker has a camera system called WISPR that films the sun’s corona. It just recently sent back stunning images of the closest images of its atmosphere.

This is a small clip. Read more and watch the whole video here:

science.nasa.gov/science-resea

(Hat tip: Colossal)

Aurora Australis from Royal National Park! This is AMAZING.

The big solar storm that is passing us this week, triggered nu a coronal mass ejection from the Sun has produced a class G4 / G5 geomagnetic storm.

Our magnetosphere deflects most of the particles from Sun away, but near the poles, some spiral down and excite our atmosphere - producing aurora.

This storm was powerful enough to generate aurora sightings as far north as Coonabarabran and the Siding Spring Observatory. That's around 340 km NW of Sydney (closer to the equator, at 31 degrees south!)

While city lights drowned out the view for many, those under darker skies were treated to an extraordinary show. This stunning timelapse footage, captured by my friend Filippo Rivetti from Royal National Park south of Sydney, offers a glimpse of the awe-inspiring beauty and planetary-scale force of this event.

A reminder of the vast, dynamic forces at play: a star lashing out across space, and a planet, our home planet with its protective magnetic shield - hosting the only life we know of so far in the Universe, safely within.

youtube.com/watch?v=cXP49hxf9ck

New BMJ Tobacco Control paper out this week uses #tobaccoindustry documents!

Historical and political context for Philip Morris International’s continuing medical education courses on harm reduction -
doi.org/10.1136/tc-2024-059015

Tobacco Control · Historical and political context for Philip Morris International’s continuing medical education courses on harm reductionIn 2024, Philip Morris International’s (PMI) website stated they support ‘independent’ continuing medical education courses on harm reduction for medical and other healthcare professionals. These courses mirrored industry marketing and political strategies by presenting smokeless tobacco products and e-cigarettes as alternatives to smoking, sometimes without mentioning tobacco cessation. The enactment of the US Family Smoking and Tobacco Control Act gave the US Food and Drug Agency jurisdiction over tobacco products and included the industry’s ‘continuum of risk’ frame, and emboldened tobacco companies to make harm reduction claims about these products, which they had previously avoided for fear of triggering restrictive regulation of cigarettes. Opposition from the medical and public health community in the USA and beyond led one large company that partnered with PMI to offer the US courses to withdraw. The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (renamed Global Action to End Smoking in 2024) created by PMI also funded a non-profit to develop continuing medical education on harm reduction. US accrediting bodies for healthcare education do not have policies against certifying tobacco-sponsored courses, and there needs to be ongoing vigilance against such efforts around the world as well as efforts to secure policies at accrediting organisations to not accredit such industry efforts.

Another #XFlare / Severe #GeomagneticStorm Watch

via #SolarHam

October 9, 2024 @ 15:50 UTC (UPDATED)

"A moderate (S2) to Strong (S3) radiation storm remains in progress following the energetic X-Flare produced by #AR3848.

"A severe (G4) geomagnetic storm watch was officially added beginning tomorrow when the fast moving CME associated with the flare event is expected to sweep past Earth. While there are no guarantees, a repeat of the geomagnetic storm and aurora event back in May could be on the horizon.

"Oh... and an impulsive X1.4 solar flare was observed around departing AR 3842 at 15:47 UTC (Oct 9)."

Source:
solarham.com/

solarham.comSpace Weather by SolarHam

#SolarHam Website Fundraiser

August 3, 2024 @ 14:00 UTC

"After 24 hours of website fundraising, I am now 30% to my goal. Thank you to everybody who have made a #donation. I really appreciate your support. If you too would like to support my work and keep the website online, please click below for more information. Thank you."

solarham.com/donate.htm

solarham.comSolarHam.com - Website Support

#SpaceWeather update via #SolarHam

"So is old region #AR3664 still active? Of course it is!

"An X2.9 solar flare was observed around the returning region at 07:08 UTC (May 27, 2024). The event is also responsible for an energetic coronal mass ejection (#CME) now emerging in updated coronagraph imagery. Because the sunspot region is still located behind the east limb, the flare itself was likely stronger than the X2.9 measurement. The CME itself should be directed away from our planet. We may see some busy days ahead of us. Stay tuned!"

solarham.com/

solarham.comSpace Weather by SolarHam

Estimated X12 #SolarFlare from [presumed] #AR3664, which is on the far side of the Sun right now.

#CarringtonEvent was believed to be X45.

#AR3664 will be Earth-facing again soon.

#SpaceWeather via #SolarHam

"A fast moving, full halo coronal mass ejection (CME) is seen leaving the Sun this morning beginning around 05:30 UTC (May 20). Based on updated imagery, this event occurred on the farside of the Sun and is not Earth directed. Perhaps our old friend AR 3664 is up to its old tricks again. We should begin to see the big sunspot region turn back into view early next week."

solarham.com/

solarham.comSpace Weather by SolarHam

[May be behind a paywall] The Strongest #SolarStorm in 20 Years Did Little Damage, but Worse #SpaceWeather Is Coming

Years of careful planning helped safeguard against last weekend’s severe space weather, but we still don’t know how we’d cope with a monster event

By Jonathan O'Callaghan & Lee Billings
May 16, 2024

"For years, we have been warned about impending doom from the sun. If pointed in our direction, powerful eruptions of radiation and plasma from our star can strike our planet to supercharge Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, effectively hitting a global 'reset' button on much of our #ModernTechnology. A sufficiently intense bombardment could raise a #Geomagneticstorm that would push satellites out of orbit, short out submarine cables that suture together the #Internet and plunge the world into darkness with massive #blackouts from collapsed #PowerGrids. Yet this past weekend, when one of the strongest solar outbursts in 20 years blasted our planet, we managed to emerge unscathed thanks to years of careful public and private planning.

"The storm has ebbed, although the solar region that sparked it has since spat out additional monstrous flares—fortunately no longer targeted at Earth because of the sun’s spin [which will change in a short time, as that spot will once again be Earth-facing]. But while we’ve passed our biggest test yet, experts say now is not the time to let down our guard: the question of more cataclysmic solar activity isn’t a matter of 'if' but 'when.'

"'This is a success story,' says Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s [#NOAA] Space Weather Prediction Center (#SWPC) in Boulder, Colo., but the weekend’s storm was 'nowhere close' to the strength of more powerful known historical events. Is it time to put our feet up? 'Heck no,' he says.

"On May 8, after ground- and space-based telescopes detected multiple explosive outbursts from the sun headed for Earth, the SWPC issued a warning of an imminent severe space weather event. At least seven of these outbursts, known as coronal mass ejections, or #CMEs, walloped our planet with billions of tons of solar plasma—an interplanetary punch that left Earth’s magnetic field ringing and made the upper atmosphere swell, almost as if bruised. The resulting geomagnetic storm was the most severe since 2003. It posed potentially grave dangers to global infrastructure while also bathing much of the world in achingly beautiful #auroral displays.

"At present, it’s difficult to say just how close we came to catastrophe because many companies— from grid controllers to satellite operators—do not like to reveal information on how a geomagnetic storm affected them, says Daniel Welling, a climate and space scientist at the University of Michigan. "'They don’t want to look like they’re vulnerable,' he says. 'Satellite operators have to insure their spacecraft, and that can be very expensive.' Yet various scattered reports are already offering some insight into the storm’s disruptive effects. Flight trackers showed airlines rerouting planes to avoid Earth’s poles, where crews and passengers would have been exposed to worrisome spikes in #CosmicRadiation from the storm. Transpower, New Zealand’s state-owned enterprise running that nation’s electric power, said in a statement that it had preemptively 'switched off some circuits across the country on Saturday [May 11],' and as a result, there was 'no impact on New Zealand’s electricity supply.' In Minnesota, the firm Minnesota Power opened capacitor banks to deal with possible effects from the storm. Similar precautions were likely taken at other power grids around the world, too, although the lack of information makes it 'tremendously' difficult to know how effective those measures were, Welling says.

"Geomagnetic storms can also play havoc with signals from #GPS satellites, and multiple farmers reported issues with GPS-guided farming equipment over the weekend. In South Dakota, one farmer’s tractor started #DrivingInCircles during the storm, and multiple farmers reported outages on social media. 'Our GPS on both the planter and the strip tiller were absolutely bonkers today,' one commenter wrote on Reddit. 'I saw this post and looked ... no GPS,' said another. LandMark Implement, a John Deere dealership based in Nebraska and Kansas, texted its customers an advisory to 'turn off' GPS devices on their farming equipment. 'The base stations were sending out corrections that have been affected by the geomagnetic storm and were causing drastic shifts in the field,' the company noted in an online post. LandMark declined to comment further when contacted.

"The storm posed hazards in space as well. Seven astronauts on the International Space Station were mostly safe from the storm’s effects, #NASA said, but did have to take some precautions. 'The crew was told to avoid lower-shielded areas of the space station out of an abundance of caution,' says Sandra Jones, a spokesperson for NASA’s Johnson Space Center. 'Certain areas provide less protection from radiation, such as the air lock, while other areas, such as crew quarters, provide enhanced protection. The crew was never in any danger, and the energy levels have since decreased.' Other satellite operators experienced greater difficulties. One company in the U.K., Sen, which streams 4K video from a satellite in low-Earth orbit, chose to power down its spacecraft for four days to prevent any damage from the storm, such as fried circuit boards or electronic failures. 'It was in an idle mode,' says Marcin Bujar, spacecraft operations lead at Sen. 'We just kept the bare minimum on—the flight computer and radio receiver.' This prevented the satellite from carrying out some tasks, including planned observations of flooding in South America and wildfires in Canada. 'It definitely had an impact,' Bujar says."

Read more:
scientificamerican.com/article

Scientific AmericanThe Strongest Solar Storm in 20 Years Was Mostly Harmless, but We May Not Be So Lucky Next TimeYears of careful planning helped safeguard against last weekend’s severe space weather, but we still don’t know how we’d cope with a monster event

Interesting article. though McDowell's “The sun is a powerful enemy” is a strange way to express our predicament.

human systems may be both dependent on—and vulnerable to— all that the sun has to give...

but the real adversaries are right here - extractive industrialisation & agriculture, cutting down the forests, burning all the fossil fuel...

scientificamerican.com/article #spaceweather #CMEs #solarstorm

Scientific AmericanThe Strongest Solar Storm in 20 Years Was Mostly Harmless, but We May Not Be So Lucky Next TimeYears of careful planning helped safeguard against last weekend’s severe space weather, but we still don’t know how we’d cope with a monster event

Sun Series: The Sun, Our Star
NASA's Curious Universe

At the most basic level, the sun is a giant ball of gas and plasma, that is sort of the fundamental life force or the fundamental source of energy in our solar system…

NASA Podcast, Season 7, Episode 2
Mar 19, 2024

"The Sun is our closest star. Billions of years ago, it shaped the formation of our home planet and the beginning of life on Earth. Today, it provides the heat and energy that powers our civilization, but it can also #disrupt our #technology and #spacecraft through explosive outbursts of radiation. Join NASA Sun scientist Joe Westlake on a journey from the surface of Earth to the Sun’s core to learn how intricately we’re connected to our star and the progress we’ve made unraveling its mysteries. This is episode one of the Sun and Eclipse series from NASA’s #CuriousUniverse, an official #NASA podcast."

nasa.gov/podcasts/curious-univ

NASASun Series: The Sun, Our Star - NASAListen to episode one of the Sun + Eclipse Series from NASA's Curious Universe Podcast

#SolarHam #Spaceweather Update:

Largest #SolarFlare Of #SolarCycle25 Observed

May 14, 2024 @ 17:05 UTC (UPDATED)

"The largest solar flare of the current solar cycle 25, and largest since 2017 was just observed around deparing #AR3664 off the west limb. The #X8.7 event peaked at 16:51 UTC (May 14) causing a strong R3 level radio blackout directly over North America. More to follow.

"And Then...

"An eruption in the vicinity of newly assigned #AR3682 measuring M4.4 was observed at 17:38 UTC (May 14). This event looks to be eruptive, meaning a #CME will be produced.

"Solar Cycle 25 just kicked it up a notch!"

via solarham.com/

#AmateurRadio #CMEs #SolarFlares #ParkerSpiral? #XClassFlares #SpaceWx

solarham.comSpace Weather by SolarHam

From Kevin at SolarHam:

"Message To Viewers

I would like to thank anybody who has ever made a donation towards the #SolarHam website and the work that I do. Without you all, this site would not be possible.

If you enjoy the SolarHam website and want to support the work that I do, please consider a donation if possible. Now that solar activity is on the rise, I put much time and effort into keeping SolarHam one of the most up to date and accurate space weather destinations on the web. Plans are in place to have automated data and graphics on site to improve the user experience. Once this is completed, a long delayed mobile App will finally be in the works.

How To Donate

Donations can be made securely via PayPal, even if you do not have a PayPal account.

If you prefer not to use PayPal, please E-Mail me for other options (kevin@solarcycle24.com).

Any donation big or small is greatly appreciated and goes directly towards the daily operation of the SolarHam website.

solarham.com/donate.htm

solarham.comSolarHam.com - Website Support

#SolarHam summary of the #auroras

MAY The 3664th

May 13, 2024 @ 00:45 UTC

"I just want to say thank you for your support the past few days. I did not get much sleep as SolarHam is a one person operation, however the Extreme #GeomagneticStorm generated a record number of visitors to the website. I appreciate everybody who continues to follow SolarHam on both the main website and on social media. Hard to believe I have been doing this now for over 18 years!

"I would like to share with you an article I wrote detailing the extreme geomagnetic storm titled 'May the 3664th'. I compiled data and imagery, all in chronological order to show how the events unfolded. I also added a small fraction of the aurora imagery that was submitted so far. Thanks again!"

solarham.com/may2024/index.htm

solarham.comMay 2024 Extreme Geomagnetic Storm

"AURORAS IN FLORIDA, PUERTO RICO, MEXICO: Many people around the world have just seen auroras for the first time in their lives."

"'The last events on record when #auroras were seen from Puerto Rico were in #1859 and 1921, so tonight was an historic event', says Eddie Irizarry from the Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe (Astronomical Society of the Caribbean)."

spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv

spaceweathergallery2.comAuroras

I guess the #NationalScienceFoundation must be one of those prepper cultists groups... Oh, and there's another potential active area (known as a #SolarPlage) about to become Earth-facing. I noticed that on the latest #SolarHam image. The plage will more than likely become #AR3673. Will it be as large and active as #AR3664?

Scientists Developed New Model to Predict #Sunspot and #Plage Coverage for #SolarCycle25

"#SolarFlares and coronal mass ejections (#CMEs) are eruptive events that impact #satellites, communication networks, electric power grids, and technological infrastructures."

nso.edu/blog/new-model-to-pred

NSO - National Solar Observatory · Scientists Developed New Model to Predict Sunspot and Plage Coverage for Solar Cycle 25 - NSO - National Solar ObservatoryScientists look to sunspot and plage area as a better proxy to predict magnetic phenomena and other indicators important for space weather.