A Midsummer Red Sprite Seen from Space

Images

Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Several transient luminous events illuminate pockets of Earth’s upper atmosphere. A line of thunderstorms off the coast of South Africa powers the rare phenomena.

Image Credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick

Planetary Positions

21.11.2024 at 15:27:09 UTC

Planet	Longitude
The Sun	29 Sco 48' 40"
The Moon	13 Leo 41' 59"
Mercury	21 Sag 14' 32"
Venus	11 Cap 43' 38"
Mars	04 Leo 41' 16"
Jupiter	18 Gem 23' 57" R
Saturn	12 Pis 43' 29"
Uranus	25 Tau 03' 10" R
Neptune	27 Pis 12' 24" R
Pluto	00 Aqu 01' 58"

Solar Status

BZ Status:	-2
Proton Density:	5.17
Proton Speed:	380.8 k/sec
KP Status:	1.00

Type	Nov 21	Nov 22	Nov 23
Active	10%	25%	25%
Minor	5%	15%	15%
Moderate	1%	1%	1%
Strong	1%	1%	1%
Kp Index Prediction
00-03UT	1.67	2.00	2.33
03-06UT	1.33	1.67	1.67
06-09UT	1.33	2.33	2.00
09-12UT	1.33	1.00	2.33
12-15UT	1.33	1.33	2.33
15-18UT	1.33	1.67	2.33
18-21UT	1.67	3.00	2.33
21-00UT	1.67	3.00	2.33
Solar Activity
Solar activity reached moderate levels following a long-duration M1.1 flare at 20/1948 UTC from Region 3897 (S12W90, Dao/beta) as it transited the west limb. This region also produced the majority of the C-class flare activity during the period. Region 3898 (S16W27, Cao/beta) exhibited slight decay early in the period, but then had some redevelopment later and managed to produced a C3.5 flare at 20/0632 UTC. Region 3901 (S07E35, Dao/beta-gamma) added a pair of low-level C-class flares, but remained mostly unchanged. The remaining regions were quiescent. New Region 3902 (S17E70, Cso/beta) was numbered. While several CMEs were observed in SOHO/LASCO coronagraph imagery, none were deemed Earth-directed.
Solar Wind
Solar wind parameters reflected a weakly enhanced solar wind regime early, before transitioning to background levels the latter half of the period. Solar wind speeds ranged between 350 km/s - 400 km/s. Total field strength averaged near 10nT, reached a peak of 13 nT, then decreased to remain near 5-8 nT the last half of the period. The Bz component fluctuated between +9/-10 nT before turning mostly north, and the phi angle was predominantly in a positive orientation.
Energetic Particle
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux was normal to moderate and the greater than 10 MeV proton flux was at background levels.

A Midsummer Red Sprite Seen from Space

Related Posts

Europa Clipper Begins Journey to Jupiter’s Icy Moon

Ancient Comet Makes Appearance

Ring Around the Mountain

Lead Astromaterial Curation Engineer Salvador Martinez III

NASA’s Earth Information Center at the Smithsonian