IMAP, to be launched with SWFO-L1 will also provide measurements. But not keeping the other missions around is wasting the opportunity of being able to learn more about the solar wind from multi-point observations. I’m even more sad if the truly unique magnetosphere and ionosphere missions stop.
…starting writing the geomagnetic storm myth paper…
Sure. There are good papers with equations relating orbital mean motion (from TLEs, related to height) with thermosphere density. And there are models that relate density to solar EUV proxies like F10.7. It’s nice to be able to connect these together, but this is not that often done anymore.
Strangely enough this has already been obvious from data and incorporated in models used by space operators since the 1960s (eg Jacchia reports and models). Yet since about 5 years ago, storms have become the only apparent culprit, in popular articles, science papers as well as funding calls.
Another article completely overselling the importance of geomagnetic storms for orbital lifetime and downplaying the lesser known but much more important solar EUV variability.
Congrats! Looking forward to more beautiful images and especially to what we can learn from this one-of-a-kind data in the coming years!
Let’s make today (May 10) Magnetosphere Appreciation Day!
A year ago today we had that huge aurora display, caused by the most powerful geomagnetic storm experienced in decades.
Lovely visualisations by NASA SVS/NASA DRIVE science centre on how our atmosphere and magnetosphere responded.
🧪🔭☀️🧲
Funny (but also not funny). It probably took the Bering Sea mention from the ERBS reentry news articles and thought it would likely look good to include it here.
The statement mentions "calculations" not "observations", so there's probably some associated residual uncertainty. The final trajectory could have been tracked from Russia half an hour earlier, or perhaps from India just minutes earlier, but I don't know if such observations exist or were used.
NY Times links to a ROSCOSMOS Telegram message, citing a 6:24 reentry west of Middle Andaman Island, based on their calculations. Observations are not mentioned, so I think we still need to interpret this with some residual uncertainty. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/s...
That TIP is suspect to me. It has the exact same time/location as the previous one, just with a smaller window (12 vs 59 min). If the reentry was indeed over the Indian Ocean off the coast of Indonesia as news sites report, this could have been about 6:30 UTC, matching the end of the longer window.
A bit strange then, that the latest space-track.org TIP (message of 10 UTC) is now for reentry at 0532 UTC with a 12 minute uncertainty window. This looks like an error in entering the data, as the time is exactly the same as for the previous TIP, while the window is smaller.
Very pretty! I'll be taking the train to get there on Monday. Always looking forward to seeing the city again.
Certainly not! The orbit I'm plotting (based on TLEs from space-track.org) does not account for the very rapid increase in drag during the final orbits. So it extends further in time than the actual trajectory, for which we don't yet have the final information.
I've made the TLE orbit available in the space weather timeline viewer, useful for checking against the reported prediction windows and observations. The TLE orbit height is not accurate and the orbit therefore extends beyond the expected reentry time: spaceweather.knmi.nl/viewer/?layo...
Congratulations!
NASA just released the first-light images from the PUNCH mission! The WFI images are spectacular. More images will be forthcoming on the PUNCH website soon. 🔭🛰️☀️
Spectacular looking eruption. However, it was more E than NE. This source of the SUVI images does not put north up, for some reason. That plays a role for assessing the probability of a geomagnetic storm in case this region continues to erupt.
Zonsondergang bij het KNMI gebouw in De Bilt
Uitbarstingen op de zon kunnen onze infrastructuur raken. Dankzij herontdekte magnetismemetingen uit 1859 kan het KNMI nu beter inschatten wat de impact zou zijn van extreem ruimteweer. 🔗 www.knmi.nl/over-het-knm...
There are 3 space-weather posts opening up at the UK Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre. Please circulate - it would be great to further strengthen the MOSWOC team.
careers.metoffice.gov.uk/join-us/sear...
careers.metoffice.gov.uk/join-us/sear...
careers.metoffice.gov.uk/join-us/sear...
Did something similar before the workshop. Boulder is such a nice place.
There is a new citizen science project for tracking solar radio bursts in Solar Orbiter data 👇
www.zooniverse.org/projects/xbo...
PUNCH is orbiting and all four spacecraft are Sun-pointed. I can sleep now. ☀️🛰️🔭🚀
While we are in a bit of a CME drought right now, worry not, the Sun is still active. Look at this incredible filament eruption yesterday near the Sun's eastern limb. This CME is not directed at Earth, but it looked spectacular in EUV imagery.
#heliophysics
This was done before for the May ARCTICS survey data, visualised here, for example: spaceweather.knmi.nl/viewer/?layo...
Do you perhaps want to discuss hosting the data on the KNMI HAPI server?
For much of mid-lat Europe, the May storm was so much more impressive than the October storm, due to the fair weather and the one well-timed substorm on May 10 at around 22:30, when darkness had set in but people were still up and outside.
Great info and analysis, Vincent! The Oct storm also had an advantage of longer darkness in the northern hemisphere. The May storm was closer to summer solstice, so much more of the activity was simply invisible, because it happened during daylight in large parts of the inhabited world.
Comet G3 ATLAS looking great in the raw Blue filter LASCO C3 images! ☀️🔭
