Translate

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Space weather forecast


Space weather forecast

CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on August 10-11 when one and perhaps two CMEs are expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The incoming clouds were propelled from the sun by a flurry of erupting magnetic filaments on Aug. 6-7. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

PERSEID EARTHGRAZER: Last night a bright meteor skimmed the top of Earth's atmosphere over rural New Mexico, passing almost directly above the private observatory of amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft. Wide-field cameras and radio receivers captured the flight of this Perseid earthgrazer:

 

Play the movie again and listen to the soundtrack. The eerie-sounding echoes are caused by terrestrial TV signals bouncing off the meteor's ionized trail. "In the radio meteor community, Perseids are known as 'blue whizzers' due to their fast speed and zinging radio reflections," notes Ashcraft.

More Earthgrazers are in the offing. Every night, Earth is plunging deeper into the debris stream of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. The best time to look for earthgrazers is between 9:30 and 10:30 pm local time as the shower's radiant climbs over the northeastern horizon. That's when the geometry favors meteoroids skimming across the top of the atmosphere like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond. Earthgrazers are slow and colorful. (Regular non-Earthgrazing Perseids, on the other hand, are best seen after midnight.)

Forecasters expect the 2013 Perseid meteor shower to peak on the nights of August 12-13 with as many as ~100 meteors per hour.




Poster's comments:

The link to this forecast and space weather in general is at:  http://spaceweather.com/

If you experience difficulty at playing the video embedded, please use the above link to watch the video. It works one way for me, and in another way does not work with what I am publishing from Space Weather.com
 

No comments: