~ Space Weather Update~ Rainbows Occuring Everywhere!!!~

QUIET SUN: With no sunspots actively flaring, the sun's X-ray output has nearly flatlined. Solar activity remains low, and no strong flares are expected today. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

AMAZING ICE HALO DISPLAY: Yesterday, sky watchers around the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, witnessed something amazing: A complex network of luminous arcs and rings surrounded the afternoon sun. "I've never seen anything quite like it," says eyewitness Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Solar physicist David Hathaway snapped this picture of the display:

Image credit and copyright: David Hathaway/NASA/MSFC

The apparition might be connected to hurricane Sandy. The core of the storm swept well north of Alabama, but Sandy's outer bands did pass over the area, apparently leaving behind a thin haze of ice crystals in cirrus clouds. Sunlight shining through the crystals produced an unusually rich variety of ice halos.

"By my count, there are two sun dogs, a 22^o halo, a parahelic circle, an upper tangent arc, and a parry arc," says Chris Brightwell, who also photographed the display. "It was amazing."

"Very impressive," agreed onlooker Kyle Winkleman. "This was a once-in-a-decade event for our area."

If the display really was a result of Sandy, sky watchers might not have to wait a decade for the next show. Some researchers believe that superstorms will become more common in the years ahead as a result of climate change, creating new things both terrible and beautiful to see overhead. Sky watchers in the storm zone should remain alert for the unusual.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

GROUND-HUGGING RAINBOW: Most rainbows arch up into the sky, but on Oct. 27th, Stefan Elieff of Punta Arenas, Chile, photographed one that seemed to hug the ground:

"Scattered rain clouds were rolling in low over the hills behind the city when this unusually low rainbow appeared," says Elieff.

Although low rainbows are seldom seen, they are actually quite common. They appear whenever raindrops are illuminated by a high-hanging sun. "A rainbow's center and the sun are always on opposite sides of the sky," explains atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "So when the sun is high, the rainbow is low. Indeed, as the sun climbs, the rainbow sinks--sometimes right into the sea."

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES

Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 0 quiet
explanation | more data

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 4.8 nT
B_z: 1.8 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1237 UT

Coronal Holes: 30 Oct 12

A minor solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Nov. 3-4. Credit: SDO/AIA.