ANOTHER CME IS COMING, CME IMPACT SPARKS BRIGHT AURORAS, All Sky Fireball Network, and Near Earth Asteroids

 ANOTHER CME IS COMING: On March 13th, an unstable filament of magnetism in the sun's far-southern hemisphere exploded. The resulting CME could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on March 17th. Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives.

CME IMPACT SPARKS BRIGHT AURORAS: As predicted, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field on March 13th. The impact sparked a moderately strong G2-class geomagnetic storm, which lasted more than 12 hours. "It was the best Northern Lights show for years," reports Jónína Óskarsdóttir, who sends this picture from Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland:

Other observers echoed Óskarsdóttir. "Best display I've seen in years," says Alan C. Tough of Moray, Scotland. "Brightest aurora in 7 years," reports Laura Kranich of Kiel, Germany. "This was the best I've seen here in the south of Norway," says Liz Gyurgyak.

In addition to auroras, the CME also jolted Earth's magnetic field and caused electricity to flow through the soil of northern Norway. Citizen scientist Rob Stammes measured these effects from his space weather observatory in the Lofoten islands.

The whole episode is a sign of strength from young Solar Cycle 25--and a hint of things to come. If forecasters are correct, Solar Max will arrive in 2 to 3 years bringing even stronger storms. If you haven't seen auroras yet, you might soon.

more images: from Minoru Yoneto of Queenstown, New Zealand; from Piotr Wieczorek of Pieczyska, Poland; from Markus Varik of Tromsø, Norway; from Paul Clements of Kirtomy, UK; from Petr Horálek of Ústupky, Czech Republic; from Gary King of Chesterfield, New Hampshire; from Stephane of Copenhagen, Denmark; from Pentti Arpalahti of Helsinki, Finland; from Heiko Ulbricht of Herzogswalde, Saxony, Germany; from Raimondas Ciuplys of Trakai, Lithuania;

 

All Sky Fireball Network

Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Mar 14, 2022, the network reported 4 fireballs.
(4 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

Near Earth Asteroids

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On March 15, 2022 there were 2271 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

20

Asteroid	Date(UT)	Miss Distance	Velocity (km/s)	Diameter (m)
2022 DS3	2022-Mar-09	13.4 LD	3.7	15
2022 EM4	2022-Mar-09	7.7 LD	6.8	29
2022 EV3	2022-Mar-09	0.2 LD	10.5	4
2022 EC2	2022-Mar-09	10.8 LD	12.3	15
2022 EN3	2022-Mar-10	7.6 LD	17.6	32
2022 EV4	2022-Mar-10	14.2 LD	7.1	16
2021 EY1	2022-Mar-10	10.1 LD	15.5	16
2015 DR215	2022-Mar-11	17.5 LD	8.3	290
2022 EV1	2022-Mar-11	10.7 LD	8.3	22
2009 DV43	2022-Mar-11	8.2 LD	16.5	65
2022 DX2	2022-Mar-13	15.7 LD	12.7	35
2022 DR3	2022-Mar-13	15.7 LD	12.4	32
2018 GY	2022-Mar-13	11.9 LD	10.7	43
2022 BX1	2022-Mar-13	20.1 LD	11	161
2022 ES3	2022-Mar-13	0.9 LD	18.3	13
2022 EO4	2022-Mar-13	2.8 LD	15.6	30
2022 EA1	2022-Mar-14	8.1 LD	5.5	13
2022 EC6	2022-Mar-14	8.4 LD	7.2	14
2022 EK4	2022-Mar-14	4.8 LD	8.3	19
2022 ED4	2022-Mar-15	2.1 LD	17	17
2022 DP3	2022-Mar-15	3 LD	10.8	41
2022 EG3	2022-Mar-15	13.7 LD	6.5	8
2022 EF4	2022-Mar-16	6.9 LD	12.1	25
2019 PH1	2022-Mar-17	12.3 LD	15.9	37
2022 EU3	2022-Mar-17	14.2 LD	5	14
2022 DB2	2022-Mar-18	11 LD	8.6	52
2016 FZ12	2022-Mar-19	2.2 LD	8.3	16
2022 DX	2022-Mar-19	8.5 LD	1.5	8
2022 ER5	2022-Mar-20	2.1 LD	12.3	27
2022 EE4	2022-Mar-21	18 LD	16.9	33
2022 DG3	2022-Mar-21	18.3 LD	7.2	37
2020 SQ	2022-Mar-21	2.8 LD	6	12
2022 EA5	2022-Mar-23	14.9 LD	8	19
2013 BO76	2022-Mar-24	13.3 LD	13.8	271
2011 GE3	2022-Mar-26	7.6 LD	7	22
2012 FX35	2022-Mar-26	13.7 LD	5.9	25
2022 EL5	2022-Mar-29	7.1 LD	3	12
2010 GD35	2022-Mar-29	17.7 LD	12.5	43
2020 FW5	2022-Mar-30	8.9 LD	13.1	27
2022 EK1	2022-Mar-30	19 LD	7.6	44
2022 DX4	2022-Mar-31	16.7 LD	6	40
2007 FF1	2022-Apr-01	19.4 LD	12.8	155
2021 GN1	2022-Apr-02	14.4 LD	14.3	19
2016 GW221	2022-Apr-02	9.8 LD	5.9	41
2022 EN2	2022-Apr-04	18.7 LD	5.6	41
2012 TV	2022-Apr-05	19.2 LD	18.1	32
2020 GH1	2022-Apr-09	16.8 LD	7.2	28
2017 TO2	2022-Apr-10	17.9 LD	11.6	78
363599	2022-Apr-12	19.3 LD	24.5	221
2020 TQ6	2022-Apr-18	13.4 LD	15.4	43
2017 UR2	2022-Apr-22	19.4 LD	9.3	10
2020 VN1	2022-Apr-25	19.3 LD	2.3	9
418135	2022-Apr-28	8.5 LD	10.4	443
2017 XO2	2022-May-01	18.8 LD	12.4	118
2017 HG1	2022-May-04	18.2 LD	6	11
467460	2022-May-09	14.9 LD	11.3	513
2019 JE	2022-May-11	4.9 LD	7.2