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NOAA PREDICTS SOLAR
CYCLE 24: Today, an international panel
of experts led by NOAA issued a new prediction for Solar Cycle 24:
It will peak, they say, in May of 2013 with a below-average sunspot
number of 90: full
story.
SOLAR RADIO BURST:
On May 9th at 1614 UT, the sun emitted a
strong shortwave radio burst. Amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft
recorded the
event using a 21 MHz radio telescope in New Mexico. Click on
the image to listen:
The loud swishing sound you just heard is a combo
Type
III-Type
V solar radio burst caused by electron beams moving through
the sun's outer atmosphere. The source of the electrons is probably
an active region now
emerging over the sun's eastern limb. The unnumbered region
is crackling with low-level A-
and B-class solar flares, and it could produce more radio sounds
in the days ahead. Ham radio operators, point your Yagis
toward the sun!
more images: from
Lars Zielke of Tvis, Denmark; from
Stefano Sello of Pisa, Italy; from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
Mogens Nissen of Denmark; from
Matthias Juergens of Gnevsdorf, Germany; from
Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from
Jesper Sorensen of Kastrup, Denmark;
SHADOWS IN THE SKY:
Friday night when the Moon rose over Key Biscayne, Florida, "a
strange phenomenon happened," reports onlooker Emanuele Colognato.
"A number of dark beams seemed to be converging on the Moon's
location in the east." He quickly photographed the scene through
his apartment window:
"I call the photo Shadows in the Sky," says
Colognato. That's a good name because the dark beams are
shadows. As the Moon was rising in the east, the sun was setting
in the west. Low-hanging clouds behind Colognato's back blocked
the light of the setting sun and cast their shadows all the way
across the sky. Perspective
effects made the shadows appear to converge on the Moon. Experts
call the dark beams anti-crepuscular
rays; "Shadows in the Sky" works, too.
more images: from
Néstor Camino of Esquel, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina; from
Lenny Kovlak of San Francisco, California; from
P-M Hedén of Tänndalen, Sweden;
April
2009 Aurora Gallery
[previous Aprils: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2004,
2003, 2002]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle
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