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Watch 4 solar flares erupt from the sun at nearly the same time in extremely rare event (video)
April 23, 2024
The sun put on quite the show this morning (April 23), blasting out not one, not two, but four solar flares in near-perfect harmony. And NASA's space-based Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught it on camera.
Solar flares are explosions from the sun's surface that emit intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation. They occur when magnetic energy builds up in the solar atmosphere and is rapidly released.
The quartet of eruptions came from four regions, three sunspots and one magnetic filament, separated by hundreds of thousands of miles and linked by near-invisible magnetic loops in the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona. These kinds of explosions are called "sympathetic solar flares," according to Spaceweather.com. They consist of pairs of explosions that occur in near unison at different regions on the sun's disk. This morning's event consisted of not a simple pair but a quartet, making it "super-sympathetic", according to Spaceweather.com.
Sympathetic solar flares are triggered when instabilities rapidly travel from one region to another along the magnetic loops that join them. As such, much of the Earth-facing portion of the sun was involved in this morning's solar symphony.
We will have to wait and see if any of the ejected material from the super-sympathetic eruption will impact Earth, as there is a possibility of an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME). CMEs are huge expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun. When Earth-directed, they can wreak havoc with power grids, telecommunication networks and orbiting satellites and expose astronauts to dangerous doses of radiation.
Conversely, CMEs are a welcomed visitor for skywatchers worldwide as they can trigger impressive aurora displays visible at latitudes beyond their "normal" polar range.
https://www.space.com/4-solar-flares-erupt-from-sun-same-time-rare-event-video
DAF members recognized in DoD culinary competition
April 23, 2024
Eleven Department of the Air Force service members were recognized for their achievements during the 48th Joint Culinary Training Exercise held at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia, Feb. 29 - March 8.
The JCTE, the largest military culinary event in North America, is sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation.
During JCTE 2024, teams of service members from across the Department of Defense competed against each other, showcasing their skills in food preparation, nutrition and presentation of culinary dishes. The DAF-sponsored team consisted of enlisted aides, flight attendants and other Airmen within the Air Force Services career field. One participant, Senior Master Sgt. Jacquelyn Gausemel, currently serves as the senior enlisted aide for Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.
“This competition is very challenging because it’s a complete mystery basket; they do not provide any equipment,” Gausemel said. “You have to think of every tool, pan, appliance, etc., that you could possibly use.”
Gausemel described the competition as consisting of various events with staggered start times. Competitors walk in and set up their stations with a 15-minute time limit. Then they are allowed to open the refrigerator, discover a “mystery basket” of ingredients, and start crafting dishes. The members who are judged to have crafted the best dishes for each event are the winners. At the end of the competition, the DAF team took home a total of 21 medals.
The Air Force Services career field is comprised of Airmen who work in food services, hospitality, and fitness management. These Airmen are stationed at nearly every Department of the Air Force installation, including Space Force bases. They also deploy to forward operating locations.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3752400/daf-members-recognized-in-dod-culinary-competition/
Watch the Full Pink Moon 2024 bloom in the night sky tonight
April 23, 2024
The Full Pink Moon of 2024 rises tonight.
Look to the east shortly after sunset to see the full moon rise above the horizon. The moon will be in the Virgo constellation, and will have most of the night to enjoy the night sky by itself while the planets are situated on the other side of Earth. That's great news for skywatchers because the full moon's brightness makes spotting other cosmic targets quite difficult when they are indeed above us; tonight, however, those targets won't even be an option. It's a night to focus solely on the moon.
The exact time of the full moon, which will take shape when the moon is exactly 180 degrees opposite the sun in the sky, will occur around 7:49 pm. EDT (2349 GMT). Still, the moon will appear "full" to the unaided eye throughout the whole night. It will set in the west shortly before 7 a.m. local time.
Saturn and Mars will rise in the east around two hours prior to sunrise, although they will be just a few degrees above the horizon — making finding them a tricky feat for some locations.
Unfortunately, the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower also happens to coincide with the full moon this year, making this a bad year for Lyrid-lovers. When moonwatching, you might be able to catch sight of a bright Lyrid or two, but don't expect much. Even on a good day, this isn't the most productive meteor shower to begin with.
The name of April's Full Pink Moon is believed to come a pink flower known as the ground phlox, which commonly blooms in North America around this time. Other names for the celestial event include the Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon and Fish Moon.
https://www.space.com/april-full-moon-pink-2024
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/04/22/vandenberg-space-force-base-deemed-contaminant-free-amid-rising-cancer-concerns-among-missile.html
Vandenberg Space Force Base Deemed Contaminant Free Amid Rising Cancer Concerns Among Missile Personnel
April 22, 2024 at 4:00pm ET
The Air Force has deemed Vandenberg Space Force Base in California free of certain potentially dangerous contaminants following a study prompted by concerns over rising cancer rates and exposure to carcinogens among service members who work with America's nuclear missiles.
The findings, released publicly Monday, "found no instances of contamination above regulatory action levels" after testing for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and volatile organic compounds that are believed to have negative health effects, Air Force Global Strike Command said in a statement. The Space Force base conducted surface testing and air sampling as part of the study.
Vandenberg, alongside America's three intercontinental ballistic missile bases Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming have all undergone testing for potential contaminants that could be linked to an alarming number of illnesses such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and blood cancers being reported among the U.S. military's missileers and maintainers.
"Ensuring the most comprehensive assessment of the operational environments our nuclear team operates in, the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine's team added our test and training sites at Vandenberg to the [missile community cancer study]," Lt. Gen. Michael Lutton, the deputy commander of Global Strike Command, said in a statement. "Leadership remains committed to a comprehensive, science-based, transparent [study] serving our nuclear force and families."
Vandenberg, located on California's Central Coast, provides training for approximately 450 missileers and maintainers every year, using simulators that look like the launch control centers and launch facilities where, if called upon, officers would be able to fire a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile at a moment's notice.
Amid concerns from missileers and maintainers about carcinogens at nuclear missile bases, officials decided to evaluate the testing and training sites too.
Military.com has conducted a monthslong investigation into cancer among missileers that included government records requests, a two-day site visit to one of the nation's nuclear missile bases, and dozens of interviews with current and former Air Force missileers, as well as the relatives of some who have passed away amid wide-ranging cancer concerns related to potential carcinogenic exposure to substances in those Cold War-era facilities.
The newsroom's investigation found the U.S. government has overlooked evidence of cancer clusters for years. Two studies of missileer cancer clusters in the early 2000s failed to recognize the growing problem in the community, with that lack of recognition making it difficult for some missileers to prove to the Department of Veterans Affairs that their illnesses were related to military service, a precursor to securing some benefits.
The military branches also appear to have failed to account properly for contaminants that have been linked to cancer for decades, particularly PCBs, which were detected last year at unsafe levels in some missile facilities during an initial round of environmental sampling and cleaning efforts that are still underway at those bases.
PBCs were detected at one launch facility and one missile alert facility at Vandenberg, according to officials, but they were well below the Environmental Protection Agency's threshold.
"Because these are below regulatory cleanup levels, no additional remediation is required. These sites will be labeled and access limited to these areas to further limit risk to personnel," Air Force Global Strike Command said.
But missile maintainers have also raised concerns to Military.com about exposure to a wide variety of chemicals, toxins and carcinogens in the launch facilities, or LFs, where nuclear missiles are held.
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Notably, certain soil and water samples were not taken at Vandenberg "as those are byproducts of agricultural operations and Vandenberg's simulators are not located near agricultural land," officials said. Additionally, surface samples were not taken for contaminants other than PCBs, and results from a 90-day radon sample are not yet complete.
Air Force officials announced the testing at Vandenberg, which does rocket launches and missile tests as well as missileer training, late last year as part of a wide-ranging and ongoing cancer and environmental study to address the missile community's concerns. The medical study began in March 2023, when former missileers raised concerns about high rates of blood cancers among former and current officers who had served at Malmstrom in Montana.
Officials said late last year that the results at Vandenberg would "help inform further LF testing" at other missile bases. It's not clear yet whether additional testing at other launch facilities will occur in the wake of the Vandenberg results, but officials said they are waiting for more data to inform future decisions.
The study is also examining cancer rates among missileers, security forces, maintainers, facility managers and other career fields that may be at risk from exposure to carcinogens and toxins.
Early results of that medical study, reported by Military.com last month, indicated elevated rates of breast and prostate cancers. But, so far, the research has looked only at Defense Department records. The current phase of the study did not include data from Department of Veterans Affairs medical records, the DoD cancer registry or the VA cancer registry, according to an Air Force Global Strike Command memo, and "captures fewer than 25% of total cancer cases" that will likely be found by the study, officials wrote.
That initial data on cancer rates includes DoD medical records from 2001 to the present, accounting for more than 2 million individuals. Of that number, officials found data covering roughly 84,000 missile community members, including 8,000 missileers.
It "is a limited slice of our population of interest," Air Force officials said, adding that "notably, it does not capture cases seen outside the military system."
The data set used for those initial findings found 198 cancer cases in the missile community, including 13 cases of female breast cancer, 24 cases of prostate cancer and 23 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in that cohort.
As the Air Force studies the issue, Torchlight, a group of former missile community members who have created a grassroots advocacy organization for those diagnosed with cancer, is seeking a presumptive service exemption making it easier to get benefits from the VA.
In an April 12 response letter, the VA said it is looking into the group's request, adding that it "will continue to gather as much science and evidence as possible to move swiftly for veterans facing serious illnesses due to military exposures."
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