BARREL Daily update Aug. 15th 2016

Update Summary

We had a successful launch and will hopefully have a second this coming Tuesday. NOAA expects that there may be a small High Speed Stream (HSS) with velocities toping out at about 400 Km/s hitting Earth around the 16th. There may be another HSS coming around Aug. 20th. These HSS may lead to either geomagnetic storms or substorms. Both storms and substorms can cause the electrons from the radiation belts to be lost to the atmosphere. 

News from Kiruna

Next possible launch date - Tuesday Aug 16th

Payloads up:

none

Payloads coming/which came down:

4A Launched: 22:24 UT Aug. 13th - 05:40 UT Aug. 14th 

News from Van Allen Probes:
Summary

EMFISIS Instrument

EMFISIS has extra burst requests in for the periods near Van Allen conjunctions out through the 20th. Chorus waves were observed by both spacecraft (better conjunction with RSBPA) during the precipitation event observed by BARREL. 

News from MMS: 
MMS team needs to know within 24 hours if you would like them to download data. E-mail Drew Turner or Allison Jaynes if you would like them to collect data in a specific region/time for conjunction studies.

News from THEMIS: 

As an update, the THEMIS team have enabled fast survey captures at
the L-shell of BARREL and the neighboring inner magnetosphere (L> ~3)
for the context of possible conjunctions with this BARREL campaign.
Within these fast survey intervals, thye also trigger particle and wave
bursts to capture high-frequency waves (whistler-mode).

This special data collection scheme is implemented on the three inner
probes for Aug. 10-25 (starting from Aug. 11 for TH-D), based on your
estimated interval of this BARREL campaign.

News from Cluster:

No new news

News from Firebird:

We did reset the firebird spacecraft and are now taking data at a 50ms cadence continuously to cover BARREL so you can probably add that to your next update.

News from AeroCube 6:

AC6 was operating and had a pass over Kiruna after our balloon was terminated. However, they also observed some structure in the observed electrons. 

News from EISCAT:

No new News 

News from ABOVE2:

We will try for a Tuesday evening launch (Aug 16) in order to have the balloon in the air on Aug 17th UTC . Surface weather looks good, there is a good conjunction with RBSP, and a recurrent coronal hole is likely to be geoeffective. NOAA is calling for a G1 (minor) storm on the 16th, although the exact timing is very uncertain. Teams in Calgary/Seattle/Edmonton are asked to travel to Saskatoon on Monday.

Space Weather  from Spaceweather.com, SWPC.noaa.gov , http://relativisticballoons.blogspot.com/2016/08/space-weather-update.html,  and Kyoto (possibly others as well)

Swedish Institute of Space Physics: Kiruna Magnetometer:  http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link=Magnetometers

quiet during the flight, but then saw two EMIC waves, one from 12 - 14 UT and another from 16 - 18 UT on Aug. 14th after the event had occurred. 

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory: Finnish Magnetometer Array: http://www.sgo.fi/Data/Pulsation/latestPulsation.php

It looks like there was an EMIC wave between 12 - 15 UT at all stations on Aug. 14th. Kilpisjarvi showed an increase in broad band ULF frequency ranges and then a EMIC wave which started at about 5:00UT. 

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory: Scandinavian Riometer data http://sgo.fi/Data/Riometer/latestRiometer.php

The data from the 14th looks like there was little precipitation until after 02:00 UT and then it died down after about 03:00UT at the higher latitude riometers. There was structure throughout the rest of the day at all sites as well.  

Lancaster Riometer http://spears.lancs.ac.uk/summary/riometer/kil_1/2016/08/ 

Again, riometers are not really my thing, but it looks like there were some bursty precipitation just after midnight. 

Kiara Riometer

 the KAIRA array has been running in full-sky imaging
riometry mode (38 MHz) throughout this time period and will continue to do
so for the remainder of the campaign.

As of tomorrow (Sat 13-Aug-2016), it will additionally be running a
high-speed multi-beam, multi-frequency riometry and various other
monitoring diagnostics. This will continue for a week at least.

NOAA GOES Electron Flux:

nominal levels, but looks to be on the rise. 

NOAA GOES Proton Flux:
nominal levels.

ACE Solar wind speed: 

Vsw =  306.4km/s

ACE Solar proton density:

density =  4.2 protons/cm^3

Sunspot number:
61  Sunspot regions 2574, 2575, and 2576 are Earthward facing but do not currently look complex enough to likely produce a CME. 

GOES Flare activity:

no flares during the Aug. 13-14 launch

6-hr max B2 

24 hr max C3 

Kp:
kp =  1 with a 24 hour max of kp = 2

ACE SW magnetic field:

Bz = 3.8 nT North

Btotal =  5.7 nT

Coronal hole news
The next coronal hole is expected to come after Aug. 18th maybe around the 20th. We should be able to get a 10 heads up from Stereo A. Stereo A will also give us an idea about the magnetic field orientation. 

Kyoto AE:

very quiet 

Kyoto Dst:

Very quiet. But right at the time of the precipitation event it looks like there may have been a small pressure pulse that hit the magnetosphere at that time. ACE realtime data was missing during most of the flight.

Swedish Phrase of a the Day: https://www.innovativelanguage.com/word-of-the-day/swedish 

Jag frågade illustratören att rita en bild åt mig. 

I asked the illustrator to draw me a picture. 

Hej då och god kväll från Kiruna (Good bye and good evening from Kiruna), 

Alexa and the BARREL team.

BARREL Daily update Aug. 11th 2016

Update Summary

KML files for MMS1 are up on the google earth dropbox folder. Hopefully later today we'll have THEMIS and LOMONSOV up as well. 

Currently it is looking less likely to have a large CME from the current active regions, but things can always change. 

News from Kiruna

Next possible launch date - Saturday evening of Aug. 13th for the early Sunday morning conjunction on Aug. 14th

Payloads up:

none
Payloads coming/which came down:

none

News from MMS: 
MMS team needs to know within 24 hours if you would like them to download data. E-mail Drew Turner or Allison Jaynes if you would like them to collect data in a specific region/time for conjunction studies.

News from THEMIS: 

As an update, the THEMIS team have enabled fast survey captures at
the L-shell of BARREL and the neighboring inner magnetosphere (L> ~3)
for the context of possible conjunctions with this BARREL campaign.
Within these fast survey intervals, thye also trigger particle and wave
bursts to capture high-frequency waves (whistler-mode).

This special data collection scheme is implemented on the three inner
probes for Aug. 10-25 (starting from Aug. 11 for TH-D), based on the
estimated interval of this BARREL campaign.

Space Weather  from Spaceweather.com, SWPC.noaa.gov , http://relativisticballoons.blogspot.com/2016/08/space-weather-update.html,  and Kyoto (possibly others as well)

Swedish Institute of Space Physics: Kiruna Magnetometer:  http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link=Magnetometers

quiet but it looks like this past evening there was a substorm. 

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory: Finnish Magnetometer Array: http://www.sgo.fi/Data/Pulsation/latestPulsation.php

Some broad band activity on  Aug. 10th. 

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory: Scandinavian Riometer data http://sgo.fi/Data/Riometer/latestRiometer.php

Just a reminder Riometers are not my area of expertise, but it does look like there may have been precipitation from around Aug. 10th around noon and during the period of the potential substorm. 

NOAA GOES Electron Flux:

We can see the end of the activity from yesterday's event and currently the levels look nominal. 

NOAA GOES Proton Flux:
nominal levels.

ACE Solar wind speed: 

Vsw =  566.4 km/s

ACE Solar proton density:

density =  0.7 protons/cm^3

Sunspot number:
69  and Sunspot AR2571 is rotating off the disk. Sunspot regions 2574, 2575, and 2576 are still rotating around but do not currently look complex enough to likely produce a CME. 

GOES Flare activity:

6-hr max B5 

24 hr max B5

Kp:
kp =   2 with a 24 hour max of kp = 3

ACE SW magnetic field:

Bz = 1.9 nT South

Btotal =  5.0 nT

Coronal hole news
The high speed stream has reached the Earth and the solar wind velocity is expected to stay high until about August 12th according to the WSA-ENLIL models. However we can already see that the velocity is dropping. 

Kyoto AE:

Although the Kiruna magnetometer looked like there was a large period of activity, the realtime AE from Kyoto is very quiet.  

Kyoto Dst:

Very quiet. 

Swedish Phrase of a the Day: https://www.innovativelanguage.com/word-of-the-day/swedish 

De vanligaste paprikorna är gröna, röda och gula. 

The most common bell peppers are green, red, or yellow. 

Hej då och god kväll från Kiruna (Good bye and good evening from Kiruna), 

Alexa and the BARREL team.

BARREL Daily Update: Aug. 10th 2016

Update Summary

Not much news. The high speed stream (HSS) has had an oscillating Bz magnetic field component which means that there hasn't been a geomagnetic storm as defined by Dst associated with it. (The more southward Bz the more solar wind energy can enter the magnetosphere and ultimately produce a geomagnetic storm) There have been some strong(ish) substorm activity throughout the last 24 hours. Substorm processes produce aurora at higher latitudinal regions. The HSS appears to be starting it's decline and should completely pass us by the morning of Aug. 12. 

There are three large numbered sunspots which have now rotated onto the Earthward side of the solar disk. They are all beta or alpha class (not very complex) and so currently are unlikely to produce a coronal mass ejection (CME), but they are growing in complexity and not yet Earth-Directed. 

News from Kiruna

Next possible launch date - Evening of Aug. 13th for the early morning conjunction on Aug. 14th

News from Van Allen Probes:
Summary

The lapping event, where the spacecraft are very close together is happening I think today. 

News from MMS: 
MMS team needs to know within 24 hours if you would like them to download data. E-mail Drew Turner or Allison Jaynes if you would like them to collect data in a specific region/time for conjunction studies.

News from THEMIS: 

As an update, the THEMIS team have enabled fast survey captures at
the L-shell of BARREL and the neighboring inner magnetosphere (L> ~3)
for the context of possible conjunctions with this BARREL campaign.
Within these fast survey intervals, thye also trigger particle and wave
bursts to capture high-frequency waves (whistler-mode).

This special data collection scheme is implemented on the three inner
probes for Aug. 10-25 (starting from Aug. 11 for TH-D), based on your
estimated interval of this BARREL campaign.

Space Weather  from Spaceweather.com, SWPC.noaa.gov , http://relativisticballoons.blogspot.com/2016/08/space-weather-update.html,  and Kyoto (possibly others as well)

Swedish Institute of Space Physics: Kiruna Magnetometer:  http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link=Magnetometers

quiet but it looks like this past evening there was a substorm. 

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory: Finnish Magnetometer Array: http://www.sgo.fi/Data/Pulsation/latestPulsation.php

EMIC waves observed around noon at Kilpisjarvi and IVALO on Aug. 9th. 

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory: Scandinavian Riometer data http://sgo.fi/Data/Riometer/latestRiometer.php

Just a reminder Riometers are not my area of expertise, but it does look like there may have been precipitation from around Aug. 9th on and off starting at 0300UT and continuing  throughout the afternoon into the midnight hours. 

NOAA GOES Electron Flux:
Some significant activity with today's substorms and a bit before hand as well. 

NOAA GOES Proton Flux:
nominal levels.

ACE Solar wind speed: 

Vsw =  620.5 km/s

ACE Solar proton density:

density =  1.5 protons/cm^3

Sunspot number:
72 and Sunspot AR2571 has a beta-gamma complexity which means that there is at a slightly higher chance for an M-class solar flare. Currently it looks like if we were so lucky for it to produce a CME, it may be Earth directed. There are a few more larger sunspot regions (2574, 2575, and 2576) which are now starting to appear on the disk and may produce Earth directed CMEs in a few days giving a potential arrival time of about 1 week from now. This is all speculative at the moment but stay tuned! 

Flare activity:

6-hr max B4 

24 hr max B5

Kp:
kp =   4 with a 24 hour max of kp = 4

SW magnetic field:

Bz = 0.4 nT South

Btotal =  4.1 nT

Coronal hole news
The high speed stream has reached the Earth and the solar wind velocity is expected to stay high until about August 12th according to the WSA-ENLIL models. Bz has been fluctuating and so no geomagnetic storm has been produced, but there has been some nice substorm activity.

AE:

Possible substorms around 8:45 and 10:00 UT today. It does seems to have been slightly elevated throughout the morning hours though. 

Dst:

Very quiet. 

Swedish Phrase of a the Day: https://www.innovativelanguage.com/word-of-the-day/swedish 

Grönsaker är en mineral-och vitaminrik källa

Vegetables are a rich source of vitamins and minerals. 

Hej då och god kväll från Kiruna (Good bye and good evening from Kiruna), 

Alexa and the BARREL team.

BARREL Daily update Aug. 9th 2016

Hej och god morgon (Hi and good morning), 

Update Summary

Important news about MMS. MMS has extended their burst collection region to include that of the BARREL locations. However, this also includes everything at higher L-values as well I believe. If you have say a magnetometer array, or riometer or a satellite that has seen something interesting in this region please contact them (Allison Jaynes or Drew Turner) within ~24 hours so that they can gather the data. 

Although we haven't yet had a CME, here's a fantastic tool to look at predicted arrival times. Different research groups will submit their modeled runs and predictions and then after the event has arrived (or missed us) a scoreboard is created to see which models captured which aspects of the solar event. http://kauai.ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/CMEscoreboard/ . (see below, but this may be very useful for the coming week, fingers crossed) These research models serve two purposes. 1st) as they are shown to be more and more accurate they can be turned into forecasting tools that NOAA and others use. 2nd) It helps us determine what physics we've got right, what we're missing, and how different modeling techniques affect the results and which ones are better for different processes ect. 

The stratospheric winds are  currently still very fast and westward which gives estimate flight times of only 1-3 hours if we were to launch tomorrow.  So, we are NOT going to attempt to launch tomorrow.  

The good news is that the upper level wind predictions for a few days from now show that it is starting to change. So, we may soon be are entering turnaround in the next couple of days which would give us a first possible launch Saturday evening (Aug 14) in order to be up at float altitude for the conjunction with Van Allen Probes early in the morning on Aug. 15th. 

In talks with the CCMC crew, it sounds like there is likely going to be an active region which has the possibility of producing Earthward directed CME's coming around the Earthward side of the disk. If this region were to explode and produce such a CME, it would likely hit us in about a weeks time, so fingers crossed that we get some great space weather in time for the Sunday conjunction

News from Kiruna

Next possible launch date - Evening of Aug. 14th for the early morning conjunction on Aug. 15th

Payloads up:

none
Payloads coming/which came down:

none

News from Van Allen Probes:
Summary

The lapping event is happening I think tomorrow. (this is when the two spacecraft come very close together. Interesting science often comes out of these events. Specifically, we can see if the waves or particle populations observed at the spacecraft are the same or different. This allows us to determine the scale size, or how large the different regions are.)

News from MMS: 
MMS team needs to know within 24 hours if you would like them to download data. E-mail Drew Turner or Allison Jaynes if you would like them to collect data in a specific region/time for conjunction studies.  

Space Weather  from Spaceweather.com, SWPC.noaa.gov,  and Kyoto (possibly others as well)

Kiruna Magnetometer:  http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link=Magnetometers

May be an EMIC wave around noon but it's unclear if it's band limited or just part of the broad band waves. 

(EMIC waves are a type of wave that ends up affecting how quickly relativistic, or very high energy, electrons are lost into the Earth's upper atmosphere. This lost population of electrons produces X-rays which can be observed by the BARREL instrumentation as well as creates changes in the upper atmospheric chemistry.)

Finnish Magnetometer Array: http://www.sgo.fi/Data/Pulsation/latestPulsation.php

EMIC waves observed around noon at Kilpisjarvi, IVALO, and maybe a few others but they become incredibly faint. 

Scandinavian Riometer data http://sgo.fi/Data/Riometer/latestRiometer.php

Just a reminder Riometers are not my area of expertise, but it does look like there may have been precipitation from around 15 UT - 23 UT yesterday. 

NOAA GOES Electron Flux:
Some activity but fairly nominal levels. 

NOAA GOES Proton Flux:
nominal levels.

ACE Solar wind speed: 

Vsw =  617.3 km/s

ACE Solar proton density:

density =  1.8 protons/cm^3

(High solar wind speeds, when combined with high densities can compress the Earth's magnetosphere and generate waves and ultimately loss of radiation belt particles to the Earth's atmosphere as well as loosing some of the radiation belt particles back out to space. When you then combine this with a strong southward Bz component (see below) you often get geomagnetic storms. When you have geomagnetic storms you often get aurora. The stronger the storm the further equator ward you are likely to see the aurora!) 

Sunspot number from SDO/HMI: 
91 and Sunspot AR2571 has a beta-gamma complexity which means that there is at a slightly higher chance for an M-class solar flare. Currently it looks like if we were so lucky for it to produce a CME, it may be Earth directed. There are a few more larger sunspot regions which are coming around the disk and may produce Earth directed CMEs in a few days giving a potential arrival time of about 1 week from now. This is all speculative at the moment but stay tuned! 

NOAA GOES Flare activity:

6-hr max C2 

24 hr max C8

NOAA/SWPC Kp:
kp =   3 with a 24 hour max of kp = 4

ACE SW magnetic field:

Bz = 4.3 nT South

Btotal =  5.6 nT

ESA/NASA/SOHO Coronal hole news
The high speed stream has reached the Earth and the solar wind velocity is expected to stay high until about August 12th according to the WSA-ENLIL models housed at SWP NOAA. However, if Bz continues to fluctuate we may not expect a geomagnetic storm associated with the HSS. Hopefully though we'll get some nice substorm activity. 

Realtime Kyoto AE:

Possibly substorm around 4:00UT and 9:30 UT today. 

Realtime Kyoto Dst:

Very quiet. 

Swedish Phrase of a the Day: https://www.innovativelanguage.com/word-of-the-day/swedish 

Min favoritämne i skolan är matte

My favorite subject in school is math. 

And because today's word is math, and we all love math, a few more 

enkel matematik

simple math

matematiskt problem

mathematics problem

Svara på matematiktalet

Answer the math problem

Hej då och god kväll från Kiruna (Good bye and good evening from Kiruna), 

BARREL Daily update: August 8th 2016

Hej och god morgon (Hi and good morning), 

Today is the start of the daily e-mails. Today we will have our telecom a bit early at 11 am Eastern (Dartmouth time). The call in info is below. 

Update Summary

The link to the wind map which was discussed last telecom is here https://earth.nullschool.net/#2015/08/05/0600Z/wind/isobaric/10hPa/orthographic=20.80,64.85,3000/loc=11.611,65.655 but we should be getting wind maps and updates on the winds at our expected float altitude starting today or tomorrow from Kiruna. 

This year we're also working with the CCMC to get a better idea about possible incoming space weather. (We already use a ton of info from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction center as you can see below, but the CCMC will give us just a bit more info for our decision making. Also they have a summer student who's interested in science communication and modeling/forecasting... NOAA, she may be a fantastic future hirer :) ) They have a bunch of publicly available tools, and in particular one where we could put together all the information normally included below in the space weather section onto one webpage. Once that link becomes live I'll send it out in the following e-mail. 

    

News from Kiruna

Payloads up:

none
Payloads coming/which came down:

none

Space Weather  from Spaceweather.com, SWPC.noaa.gov , http://relativisticballoons.blogspot.com/2016/08/space-weather-update.html,  and Kyoto (possibly others as well)

Kiruna Magnetometer:  http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link=Magnetometers
It looks like there was a substorm last night, but no EMIC waves associated with it at this station. 

Finnish Magnetometer Array: http://www.sgo.fi/Data/Pulsation/latestPulsation.php

There was a nice EMIC wave at Kilpisjarvi but it was not seen at the other magnetometers in the array. 

Scandinavian Riometer data http://sgo.fi/Data/Riometer/latestRiometer.php

Just a reminder Riometers are not my area of expertise, but it does look like there may have been precipitation associated with the substorm last night. 

GOES Electron Flux:
GOES 800 keV and 2 MeV electrons appear to have been disturbed and dropped out for a short time with the substorm activity possibly but appear to be recovered as of sending this e-mail. 

GOES Proton Flux:
nominal levels.

Solar wind speed: 

Vsw =  489.9 km/s

Solar proton density:

density =  3.9 protons/cm^3

Sunspot number:
63 and Sunspot AR2571 has a beta-gamma complexity which means that there is at a slightly higher chance for an M-class solar flare. Currently it looks like if we were so lucky for it to produce a CME, it may be Earth directed. However the chances of it flaring are low (see Anna's post on the blog). 

Flare activity:

6-hr max C5 

24 hr max C5

(Should also note that Anna the CCMC summer student has been working on a flare prediction model! )

Kp:
kp =   2 with a 24 hour max of kp = 4

SW magnetic field:

Bz = 2.9 nT north

Btotal =  4.8 nT

Coronal hole news
A coronal hole with a nice high speed stream should hit today or maybe tomorrow. It does look to be quiet wide so we may see high solar wind speeds for quite a while. We've got our summer CCMC student working on looking at what this high speed stream looked like at Stereo A which may give us an indication of the magnetic field orientation associated with it. 

AE:

Possibly substorm around 00 UT this morning. 

Dst:

quiet. 

Daily BARREL check in information: No Telecon today. 

Two hours earlier on Monday Aug. 8th 5pm Kiruna time (11:00 Dartmouth time, 10:00 Minneapolis/Iowa time, 9:00 University of Colorado Boulder, 8:00 Berkley time)

(normally Time: 7pm Kiruna time (13:00 Dartmouth time, 12:00 Minneapolis/Iowa time, 11:00 University of Colorado Boulder, 10:00 Berkley time)) . 

Phone number +1 641-715-3580

Access code 481960

Swedish Phrase of a the Day: https://www.innovativelanguage.com/word-of-the-day/swedish 

Den unga flickan gillar inte broccoli

The young girl dislikes broccoli

Hej då och god kväll från Kiruna (Good bye and good evening from Kiruna), 

Alexa and the BARREL team. 

BARREL Kiruna campaign update

Hej (Swedish for hi)

The campaign is almost here! Once again this year we'll have daily e-mails and telecoms during the campaign for coordination between us, the Van Allen Probes, and other friends. The list of friends is continually growing. Some of the new missions we're excited to work with are MMS, HiT&MIS (an Auroral Imager from UMass Lowell), and the new and improved FIREBIRD.

A more complete update on the science side of running the campaign can be found on the science blog here. We'll be putting the daily e-mail summaries up on the science blog as well.

Stay tuned for more updates as the team travels to Sweden and starts setting up at ESRANGE! Also follow the campaign on twitter @KeV_balloons. @PlasmaNerd on twitter (Alexa) will also be twitting the campaign from Sweden as well.

Hej då (Swedish for goodbye)

The Daily e-mails for this year's campaign

Hi all,

As with the previous campaigns, we'll be having our daily e-mails. I'll also be putting up a shortened version here on the blog. I've heard from some of the teams already that they would like to be included, but please feel free to let me know if you would also like to be added to the list. Just leave a comment below.

Thanks and here's hoping for an exciting campaign!

@keV_Balloons

First daily update up on the dedicated science blog

As we are getting close to our first launch for the 2nd BARREL campaign, we are starting our daily updates again. However this year we have a specific blog for these updates. Check us out on the BARREL science blog. You can find the link on the right hand side of the header.

Don't forget to bookmark the new page if you are interested in keeping up to date with the running of the BARREL campaign.


See you around,

Alexa

Daily e-mail Feb. 15 2013

Good afternoon, 

There were another two CMEs from the western limb, but as they were off the visible side it is yet unclear if they are Earth-directed. Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow. 

Payloads up:

SANAE IV: 1T

Halley 6: 1I,

Payloads coming down:

1A was cut down on Feb. 14 at 0232 UT. 

Conjunctions: 

Feb 9 2013

Sat. A 0430 UT - 1100 UT

Sat. B 0730 UT - 1350 UT

Feb 8 2013

Sat. A 0200 UT - 0800 UT 

Sat. B 0600 UT - 1100 UT

Feb 5 2013

Sat. A 0130 UT - 0845 UT 

Sat. B 0355 UT - 1130 UT

Feb 4 2013

Sat. B 0045 UT - 0810 UT 

Feb 3-4 2013

Sat. A 2220 UT on February 3rd to 0545 on February 4th

Feb 3 2013

Sat. A 0420 UT - 1200 UT

Sat. B 0640 UT - 1420 UT

Jan 30 2013-partially cancelled

Sat. A 0140 UT - 0555 UT

Sat. B 0335 UT - 1050 UT

Jan 29 2013

Sat. A 0735 UT - 1515 UT

Sat. B 0025 UT - 0740 UT

Sat. B 0915 UT - 1650 UT

 

Jan 28-29 2013

Sat. A 2250 UT Jan 28 - 0605 UT Jan 29

 

Jan 28 2013

Sat. A 0450 UT - 1210 UT

Sat. B 0625 UT - 1345 UT

 

Jan 27 2013

Sat. A 0220 UT - 0910 UT

Sat. A 1114 UT - 1815 UT

Sat. B 0330 UT - 1020 UT

Sat. B 1215 UT - 1940 UT

Halley Bay :

Hasn't updated yet. 

GOES Electron Flux:

Have continued to be at normal to moderate levels and are expected to be the same for the next three days.

 

GOES Proton Flux:

Has stayed at background levels for the lat 24 hours and is expected to be the same over the next three days

 

Space Weather from Spaceweather.com and SWPC.noaa.gov

 

Solar wind speed is 337.9 km/s 

Solar proton density 2.0 cm^(-3) 

 

25 sunspots are now visible. NOAA has the likelihood of a M class flare at 1% (The lowest it's reached during the campaign) and a 1% chance of an X class flare. 

 

Kp is quiet kp = 1 with a 24 max of kp = 1

Bz = 1.3 nT south

Btotal = 3.9 nT 

 

There are currently no large coronal holes. 

From Kyoto:

AE: some small blips of activity

 

Dst: We have long recovered from yesterday's storm and it is now quiet again. 

 

Have a great day, 

Daily e-mail Feb 14th 2013

Good Morning 

NO TELECON TODAY - As we are starting to wind down we have decided that we no longer need daily telecons but instead will switch to weekly telecons. Unless there is any argument against this time, the weekly telecons will be on Thursdays at 10am PST starting next Thursday. 

Early this morning the magnetosphere and solar wind proved they didn't need a solar storm to cause some geomagnetic activity. We finally had a period of sustained southward Bz and thus we got a storm. It was a small storm, but then again the SW never reached much more than 400 km/s, B_tot stayed below 15 nT, and the density was for the most part below 10 cm^-3. Even B_z was often above -5 nT. Kp reached a high of 4 and the Dst dipped to -47 nT making this the second largest storm during the BARREL 2013 campaign. All without the help of a coronal hole or CME. I think this was the magnetosphere and SW's valentine to us. 

Payloads up:

SANAE IV: 1T

Halley 6: 1I,

Payloads coming down:

1A was cut down on Feb. 14 at 0232 UT. 

Conjunctions: 

Feb 9 2013

Sat. A 0430 UT - 1100 UT

Sat. B 0730 UT - 1350 UT

Feb 8 2013

Sat. A 0200 UT - 0800 UT 

Sat. B 0600 UT - 1100 UT

Feb 5 2013

Sat. A 0130 UT - 0845 UT 

Sat. B 0355 UT - 1130 UT

Feb 4 2013

Sat. B 0045 UT - 0810 UT 

Feb 3-4 2013

Sat. A 2220 UT on February 3rd to 0545 on February 4th

Feb 3 2013

Sat. A 0420 UT - 1200 UT

Sat. B 0640 UT - 1420 UT

Jan 30 2013-partially cancelled

Sat. A 0140 UT - 0555 UT

Sat. B 0335 UT - 1050 UT

Jan 29 2013

Sat. A 0735 UT - 1515 UT

Sat. B 0025 UT - 0740 UT

Sat. B 0915 UT - 1650 UT

 

Jan 28-29 2013

Sat. A 2250 UT Jan 28 - 0605 UT Jan 29

 

Jan 28 2013

Sat. A 0450 UT - 1210 UT

Sat. B 0625 UT - 1345 UT

 

Jan 27 2013

Sat. A 0220 UT - 0910 UT

Sat. A 1114 UT - 1815 UT

Sat. B 0330 UT - 1020 UT

Sat. B 1215 UT - 1940 UT

Halley Bay :

Hasn't updated yet. 

GOES Electron Flux:

Have continued to be at normal to moderate levels and are expected to be the same for the next three days.

 

GOES Proton Flux:

Has stayed at background levels for the lat 24 hours and is expected to be the same over the next three days

 

Space Weather from Spaceweather.com and SWPC.noaa.gov

 

Solar wind speed is 397.8 km/s 

Solar proton density 2.0 cm^(-3) 

 

26 sunspots are now visible. NOAA has the likelihood of a M class flare at 5% and a 1% chance of an X class flare. 

 

Kp is quiet kp = 3 with a 24 max of kp = 4

Bz = 2.3 nT south

Btotal = 3.5 nT 

 

There are currently no large coronal holes. 

From Kyoto:

AE: Lots of activity! AE has yet to reach 1000 nT, but it has come pretty close. 

 

Dst: A Storm! Dst reached a min of -47 nT

 

Have a great day, 

Daily e-mail Feb. 13th 2013

Good Morning 

There were two CME's today, but no word yet if they will be geo effective. They originated in the South West region of the Sun, which give us a better than average chance. Fingers crossed! That said, space weather.com is saying that it's not going to hit us. 

Payloads up:

SANAE IV: 1T

Halley 6: 1I, 1A

Payloads coming down:

nothing to report

 

Conjunctions: 

Feb 9 2013

Sat. A 0430 UT - 1100 UT

Sat. B 0730 UT - 1350 UT

Feb 8 2013

Sat. A 0200 UT - 0800 UT 

Sat. B 0600 UT - 1100 UT

Feb 5 2013

Sat. A 0130 UT - 0845 UT 

Sat. B 0355 UT - 1130 UT

Feb 4 2013

Sat. B 0045 UT - 0810 UT 

Feb 3-4 2013

Sat. A 2220 UT on February 3rd to 0545 on February 4th

Feb 3 2013

Sat. A 0420 UT - 1200 UT

Sat. B 0640 UT - 1420 UT

Jan 30 2013-partially cancelled

Sat. A 0140 UT - 0555 UT

Sat. B 0335 UT - 1050 UT

Jan 29 2013

Sat. A 0735 UT - 1515 UT

Sat. B 0025 UT - 0740 UT

Sat. B 0915 UT - 1650 UT

 

Jan 28-29 2013

Sat. A 2250 UT Jan 28 - 0605 UT Jan 29

 

Jan 28 2013

Sat. A 0450 UT - 1210 UT

Sat. B 0625 UT - 1345 UT

 

Jan 27 2013

Sat. A 0220 UT - 0910 UT

Sat. A 1114 UT - 1815 UT

Sat. B 0330 UT - 1020 UT

Sat. B 1215 UT - 1940 UT

Halley Bay :

very quiet

GOES Electron Flux:

Have continued to be at normal to moderate levels and are expected to be the same for the next three days.

 

GOES Proton Flux:

Has stayed at background levels for the lat 24 hours and is expected to be the same over the next three days

 

Space Weather from Spaceweather.com and SWPC.noaa.gov

 

Solar wind speed is 344.0 km/s 

Solar proton density 4.4 cm^(-3) 

 

55 sunspots are now visible. NOAA has the likelihood of a M class flare at 5% and a 1% chance of an X class flare. 

 

Kp is quiet kp = 1 with a 24 max of kp = 2

Bz = 1.7 nT north

Btotal = 6.3 nT 

 

There are currently no large coronal holes. 

From Kyoto:

AE: small amounts of activity

 

Dst: quiet. 

 

Have a great day, 

Daily e-mail Feb 12th 2013

Good Morning 

There was a CME on Saturday and an HSS which should both be hitting us today but it looks more and more certain that they may have been too far north and south respectively to be very geo-effective. 

Payloads up:

SANAE IV: 1T

Halley 6: 1I, 1A

Payloads coming down:

1H was terminated yesterday 

   

Conjunctions: 

Feb 9 2013

Sat. A 0430 UT - 1100 UT

Sat. B 0730 UT - 1350 UT

Feb 8 2013

Sat. A 0200 UT - 0800 UT 

Sat. B 0600 UT - 1100 UT

Feb 5 2013

Sat. A 0130 UT - 0845 UT 

Sat. B 0355 UT - 1130 UT

Feb 4 2013

Sat. B 0045 UT - 0810 UT 

Feb 3-4 2013

Sat. A 2220 UT on February 3rd to 0545 on February 4th

Feb 3 2013

Sat. A 0420 UT - 1200 UT

Sat. B 0640 UT - 1420 UT

Jan 30 2013-partially cancelled

Sat. A 0140 UT - 0555 UT

Sat. B 0335 UT - 1050 UT

Jan 29 2013

Sat. A 0735 UT - 1515 UT

Sat. B 0025 UT - 0740 UT

Sat. B 0915 UT - 1650 UT

 

Jan 28-29 2013

Sat. A 2250 UT Jan 28 - 0605 UT Jan 29

 

Jan 28 2013

Sat. A 0450 UT - 1210 UT

Sat. B 0625 UT - 1345 UT

 

Jan 27 2013

Sat. A 0220 UT - 0910 UT

Sat. A 1114 UT - 1815 UT

Sat. B 0330 UT - 1020 UT

Sat. B 1215 UT - 1940 UT

Halley Bay :

very quiet

GOES Electron Flux:

Have continued to be at normal to moderate levels and are expected to be the same for the next three days.

 

GOES Proton Flux:

Has stayed at background levels for the lat 24 hours and is expected to be the same over the next three days

 

Space Weather from Spaceweather.com and SWPC.noaa.gov

 

Solar wind speed is 362.9 km/s 

Solar proton density 1.5 cm^(-3) 

 

60 sunspots are now visible. NOAA has the likelihood of a M class flare at 10% and a 1% chance of an X class flare. 

 

Kp is quiet kp = 1 with a 24 max of kp = 2

Bz = 1.3 nT south

Btotal = 1.6 nT 

 

It looks like there may be a small coronal hole about halfway across the sun which is hiding behind a pair of sunspots. 

From Kyoto:

AE: very quiet

 

Dst: quiet. 

 

Have a great day