thesuntoday-blog

[thesuntoday-blog]

Ask your questions about the #MMS mission with #AskNASA #MagRecon #NASAsocial (at Kennedy Space Center)

[thesuntoday-blog]

Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) - 1 story 525 ft high #nasasocial #magrecon #mms tour (at NASA Kennedy Space Center)

[thesuntoday-blog]

#MMS science press conference 1 day to launch from Kennedy Space Center #NASASocial #magrecon

[thesuntoday-blog]

MMS on its Atlas V rocket settling in on the launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center #NASASocial #MagRecon (at Kennedy Space Center)

[thesuntoday-blog]

Happy New Year! Here are some end of the year aurora! A few snapshots of aurora taken in the last days of 2014. Auroral activity is currently at moderate levels with about a 40-45% chance of some geomagnetic activity at higher latitudes. Folks in Northern Europe and North America down to perhaps lower Canada or upper US may get a special treat. Good luck aurora hunters. All of these were originally shared at spaceweather.com.

[thesuntoday-blog]

Winter wonderland aurora around the arctic circle. Luba Trifonova captured these amazing images from the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Beautiful green aurora shining down upon moonlit snow. High speed solar wind swept past Earth to produce a G1 geomagnetic storm, exciting aurora across Northern Europe, Canada and into the northern US. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance for continued storms. credit: Luba Trifonova and spaceweather.com

[thesuntoday-blog]

Let there be aurora! A coronal mass ejection (CME) impacting Earth’s magnetic field on Dec. 21, 2014 stirred up a G1 (out of 5) geomagnetic storm. This produced an amazing show of lights in the Norwegian sky. The fantastic aurora were captured in picture by Truis Tiller, "Sometimes its smart too trust your feeling. I was almost going to bed when i decided to give it a chance. 2.45 AM i took my camera and went up in the forrest just behind my house in Tromsdalen. And what was waiting fore me, Look fore yourselves and just enjoy it. IT WAS AMAZING” credit: Truis Tiller shared by spaceweather.com

[thesuntoday-blog]

Happy Solstice! The December solstice for 2014 begins on Dec. 21st at 23:03 UT (6:03 pm EST, 3:03 pm PST.) It is called the winter solstice for the Northern Hemisphere and the summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere. http://bit.ly/decsolstice2014

[thesuntoday-blog]

Wait for it, Wait for it, BOOM! Flare and CME from AR12242

Solar activity levels are currently high. The eruption from region 12242 produced an X1.8 flare peaking at 00:28 UT (12/20/2014). There is associated ejecta visible in SDO imagery. The resulting CME is initially estimated at around 900 km/s but a better speed and direction estimate is not yet available until more SOHO/LASCO data becomes available. There was a data gap that will eventually be filled. Here is a look at the event in SDO 171 and 193 angstrom wavelengths. credit: NASA/SDO

[thesuntoday-blog]

An X flare is in progress. It is just shy of an X2. It started at beginning of 12/20 UT from AR12242. Here is a look at the X-ray curve from GOES, the region of high frequency radio blackout from the flare lighting up the sun facing side of Earth along with snapshots in 1600 and 94 angstrom light from SDO. credit: NASA/NOAA/GOES/SDO

[thesuntoday-blog]

Active region 12242 fired off an M6.9 solar flare that peaked in X-rays at 21:58 UT. The event also produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) of moderate speed. The CME is probably primarily Earth-directed. Awaiting more data for details on the CME. Here is a snapshot of the eruption seen with the SDO/AIA instrument in the 171 and 131 angstrom channels. These show us plasma from about 1 to 20 million degrees F. credit: NASA/SDO

[thesuntoday-blog]

Active region 12242, produced an M8.7 event at 12/17/04:50 UT. 12242 has significantly increased its sunspot count and area and has maintained its complexity. So another major flare =/>M5 is likely in the next 24 hours. Here is a snapshot of the current sun seen with SDO/HMI. It shows a sun pretty busy with sunspots. Note the graphic does not have the leading 1 on the numbers. credit: NASA/SDO/HMI

[thesuntoday-blog]

Become an Aurora Hunter!

Join the Google+ hangout today at 3pm EST. The link for the hangout is http://bit.ly/1yyCNIi and the video link from Youtube is http://bit.ly/1yyDCAS

[thesuntoday-blog]

Do you want to be an Aurora Hunter but have no idea how to get started? Now you can be one through Aurorasaurus (http://bit.ly/aurorasaurus) - be part of a grand experiment “Reporting Auroras from the Ground Up.”  Join the Aurorasaurus Google hangout next WED (12/10) at 3PM Eastern time for a quick tour of Aurorasaurus! Ask them ANY questions!  (Tip: They're a team of aurora researchers so this is your chance to ask them all about aurora.) The link to join the hangout will be shared through The Sun Today accounts in addition to the Auroraurus accounts on Facebook (http://bit.ly/aurorasaurus-fb), Twitter (@tweetaurora) and Google+ http://bit.ly/aurorasaurus-Gplus  The Aurorasaurus team is a collection of scientists and educators who have developed this free nowcasting aurora notification service for use by the general public. They are studying aurora, human-computer interactions, and learning in informal settings. Be apart of the project and become an Aurora Hunter! Learn more about the team at http://bit.ly/about-aurorasaurus credit: aurora image by Трифонова Любовь and shared at spaceweather.com

[thesuntoday-blog]

Happy Birthday SDO! Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO has kept a 24-hour eye on the sun during the last 4 years. NASA released this movie of some of SDO's best sightings of the year, including massive solar explosions and giant sunspot shows.

http://youtu.be/gcOcumGEGHQ

[thesuntoday-blog]

A nice eruption with a partially occulted (blocked) M1 flare peaking at 16:14 UT on Feb. 9, 2014. Here is a short video from SDO using the 171, 193 and 131 angstrom wavelength cameras. credit: NASA/SDO/LMSAL

[thesuntoday-blog]

Possible Glancing Blow at Earth from M6.6 Associated CME. CME may impact Earth on Feb. 2, 2014 during the first half of the day according to NASA SWRC research models. Read more at http://bit.ly/1ftSRPP