FIREBALLS AND NEAR EARTH ASTERIODS AND COSMIC WAVES IN THE ATMOSPHERE

-

 FIREBALLS

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 Apr 02, 2022, the network reported 8 fireballs.
(8 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 April 4, 2022 there were 2272 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2022 FF1
2022-Mar-29
3.9 LD
6.7
5
2022 FR1
2022-Mar-29
4.9 LD
9.6
9
2022 GJ
2022-Mar-29
19.3 LD
20.9
62
2022 EL5
2022-Mar-29
7.1 LD
3
14
2010 GD35
2022-Mar-29
17.7 LD
12.5
43
2022 GA
2022-Mar-30
1.7 LD
10.5
15
2022 FL4
2022-Mar-30
2 LD
10.7
17
2022 EK1
2022-Mar-30
19 LD
7.6
42
2022 GB
2022-Mar-30
0.7 LD
8.2
5
2022 FX1
2022-Mar-30
13.3 LD
9.6
25
2022 FM2
2022-Mar-31
11.6 LD
6.2
20
2022 FL1
2022-Mar-31
5 LD
2.6
5
2020 FW5
2022-Mar-31
12 LD
12.9
27
2022 FQ2
2022-Mar-31
6 LD
9.4
16
2022 GL
2022-Mar-31
1.2 LD
7.2
5
2022 GM
2022-Mar-31
3.6 LD
7.8
8
2022 DX4
2022-Mar-31
16.7 LD
6
39
2022 GK
2022-Apr-01
2.1 LD
12.7
12
2022 GD
2022-Apr-01
11.9 LD
10.1
24
2022 GC
2022-Apr-01
0.1 LD
15.6
5
2022 FF3
2022-Apr-01
2.6 LD
5.3
10
2022 GQ
2022-Apr-01
0.1 LD
7
3
2007 FF1
2022-Apr-01
19.4 LD
12.8
155
2022 GS
2022-Apr-02
16.2 LD
5.3
26
2022 FQ
2022-Apr-02
8 LD
10.4
36
2021 GN1
2022-Apr-02
14.4 LD
14.3
19
2016 GW221
2022-Apr-02
9.8 LD
5.9
41
2022 FE2
2022-Apr-02
10 LD
10.6
31
2022 FJ1
2022-Apr-02
16.5 LD
5
27
2022 FL
2022-Apr-03
8.7 LD
7.3
21
2017 WN13
2022-Apr-04
6.3 LD
19.5
102
2022 EN2
2022-Apr-04
18.7 LD
5.6
37
2022 FG3
2022-Apr-04
12.6 LD
7.4
24
2022 GH
2022-Apr-04
6.9 LD
10.6
39
2022 FO3
2022-Apr-04
6.7 LD
11.3
22
2012 TV
2022-Apr-05
19.2 LD
18.1
32
2022 GO
2022-Apr-07
15 LD
9.6
25
2022 GP
2022-Apr-08
2.3 LD
17.6
19
2022 GX
2022-Apr-08
3.7 LD
12.9
14
2022 GT
2022-Apr-09
12.4 LD
4.9
16
2020 GH1
2022-Apr-09
16.8 LD
7.2
28
2022 FU4
2022-Apr-09
8.3 LD
4.7
13
2022 FT3
2022-Apr-10
19.8 LD
11
22
2017 TO2
2022-Apr-10
17.9 LD
11.6
78
363599
2022-Apr-12
19.3 LD
24.5
221
2022 FR3
2022-Apr-14
18.3 LD
8.4
90
2020 TQ6
2022-Apr-18
13.4 LD
15.4
43
2022 FN3
2022-Apr-19
15.2 LD
6.3
39
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
20
2012 UX68
2022-May-15
2.8 LD
8.2
54
388945
2022-May-15
15 LD
8.2
287
2013 UX
2022-May-17
16.8 LD
16.3
141
2021 WY
2022-May-18
16.9 LD
9
65
7335
2022-May-27
10.5 LD
13.1
1108
2021 KO2
2022-May-30
3.1 LD
14.8
9
2020 DA4
2022-Jun-01
5.5 LD
8.9
26
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
  Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere

SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.

Latest results (Nov. 2021): Our balloons have just measured a sudden drop in atmospheric radiation. It happened during the strong geomagnetic storms of Nov. 3-4, 2021. Here are the data:

This is called a "Forbush decrease," named after American physicist Scott Forbush who studied cosmic rays in the early 20th century.  It happens when a CME from the sun sweeps past Earth and literally pushes cosmic rays away from our planet. Radiation from deep space that would normally pepper Earth's upper atmosphere is briefly wiped out.

We have measured Forbush decreases before. For example, here's one from Sept. 2014. The Forbush Decrease of Nov. 3-4, 2021, was the deepest in the history of our 7-year atmospheric monitoring program. Radiation levels in the stratosphere over California dropped nearly 20%, more than doubling the previous record from our dataset. 

En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes, so we can sample radiation where planes fly. This plot shows how the Forbush decrease was restricted to the stratosphere; it did not affect lower levels of the atmosphere:

The dose rates shown above are expressed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. The higher you fly, the more radiation you will absorb.

.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. Somewhat more controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) link cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

.Technical notes: The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.

Data points in the first graph ("Stratospheric Radiation") correspond to the peak of the Regener-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Regener and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.


All Sky Fireball Network

Comments

Post a Comment

please follow, like and comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Philadelphia Experiment – What’s the Real Story?

-
Image
  The Philadelphia Experiment – What’s the Real Story? The Philadelphia Experiment is an event during 1943 in which the United States Navy purportedly teleported a Navy destroyer escort, the USS Eldridge (DE 173), from Philadelphia to Norfolk. They also made it invisible – as in, to the naked eye. Most people believe the incident was either a hoax or the ravings of a lunatic, however, some still believe that it may have really occurred and that there is a large conspiracy to cover it up. What is interesting is that the tale of the Philadelphia Experiment has made it into the annals of American legend. So, what’s the real story? USS Eldridge. Source: Wikimedia Commons. The Philadelphia Experiment The story of the Philadelphia Experiment begins in October of 1943 in Norfolk, Virginia, though the story did not turn up until more than ten years later. Purportedly, some men aboard the SS Andrew Furuseth saw a ship spontaneously appear in the water in Norfolk on October 28. The story goe...
Read more

The Pentagon Just Confirmed the First-Ever Interstellar Visitor to Earth

-
Image
  ©   Pete Saloutos - Getty Images A meteor that crashed into the South Pacific in 2014 was recently confirmed to have origins outside our Solar System. T he United States Space Command (USSC) has confirmed a 2014 study from a team of astronomers, noting that government sensors did, in fact, detect a meteor on Earth that originated outside our Solar System. The rock is only the third   interstellar   object ever detected in our system, and the first to enter our atmosphere. After scientists publish their research on this   meteoric   discovery, they may be able to learn more about its contents. Government   sensors   on the hunt for fireballs plunging toward Earth have so far logged about 1,000 meteors and   asteroids . But only one of them can boast that it traveled through our atmosphere from outside our own Solar System. This fireball, which shot through our atmosphere over Papua New Guinea in 2014, was no ordinary space rock—it was actual...
Read more

A rocket part could collide with the moon in the next few weeks

-
Image
  A rocket part could collide with the moon in the next few weeks By Katie Hunt, CNN - 4h ago Follow React 5 Comments | 14 Listen to this article A rogue rocket booster could collide with the moon in the next few weeks, according to space experts, an event that could leave a crater on the far side of the moon. © Laurent Emmanuel/AFP/Getty Images A photo taken on May 13, 2019, shows a view of the moon from Cannes, southern France. The SpaceX Falcon rocket stage was used in 2015 to launch the  US Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR  and has been floating around in the outer part of the Earth-moon system ever since. Bill Gray, an independent researcher focused on orbital dynamics who was the first to publicize the imminent collision, said by his calculations the rocket part would hit the moon a bit north of its equator "within a minute" of 7.26 a.m. ET on March 4. The way the object is moving makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact location, he added, a...
Read more