Space Weather Update~ Farside Activity, METEOR SHOWER Underway

 

SOUTHERN DELTA AQUARIID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet 96P/Machholz, source of the annual Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower. The shower's broad peak, centered on July 30th, is expected to produce a meteor every 4 or 5 minutes during the dark hours before local sunrise. Southern hemisphere observers are favored. [meteor radar]

FARSIDE SOLAR ACTIVITY: Solar activity has been low for more than a week. A pair of explosions on the farside of the sun have broken the quiet. During the late hours of July 29th, a southern magnetic filament and a northern sunspot erupted in quick succession, producing a pair of CMEs. The sunspot is circled in this full-sun UV image taken by the STEREO-SDO fleet on July 30th:

The active region is only 2-3 days away from rotating onto the Earthside of the sun. Its arrival could bring an uptick in Earth-directed solar activity. Or not. The ongoing solar maximum is prone to long spells of quiet, and it's not clear that the current quiet spell is really over. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

Monitor the farside! Download the 3D Sun app for your smartphone and never miss a farside explosion.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

NACREOUS CLOUDS OVER TIERRA DEL FUEGO: On July 24th, about an hour after sunset, Gerardo Connon of Rio Grande city in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, walked outside and witnessed a rare display of nacreous clouds. The colorful apparition was as bright as the street lights in the city below:

These clouds, also known as "mother of pearl clouds," form in the stratosphere far above the usual realm of weather. They are seldom seen, but when they are, the reports usually come from high-northern parts of our planet. This apparition over Tierra del Fuego was unusual indeed.

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains the special conditions required to create such a cloud: "Take an unusually cold lower stratosphere (15-25km high), use some gravity waves generated by high winds and storms in the troposphere to stir in some water vapour, and -- voilà! You get these clouds made of tiny ice crystals shining after sunset with unforgettably bright iridescent colors."

"The very special conditions make nacreous clouds a rare, high-latitude phenomenon. Scandinavia, Iceland and northern Canada are favourite places to see them. Sightings in the southern hemisphere are even more rare because there is so little land far enough south except for Antarctica."

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

Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet
explanation | more data

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 5.9 nT
B_z: 2.7 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1640 UT

Coronal Holes: 30 Jul 13

Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could brush against Earth's magnetic field on August 4-5. Credit: SDO/AIA.