CME TRACKER
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Learn space weather on the real map

Six short modules. Each one puts the live tracker on the page, gives you one call to make, and shows you what really happened, in real images and moving pictures. No account. Works on a phone.

Start module 1 · 6 min I teach this
0 of 6 done · about 40 minutes end to end
  1. 1The Sun has weather6 min
  2. 2Why the Sun erupts7 min
  3. 3Watch a storm happen8 min
  4. 4How forecasting works7 min
  5. 5Predict it yourself8 min
  6. 6Tonight, for real5 min
LiveThis is today's Sun. Every wedge is a real CME from the last 90 days.

The course

Take them in order, or jump in anywhere
Three runners race from the Sun to Earth: light, fast protons and the CME
Module 1 · Live
The Sun has weather
What a CME is, why it arrives days after the flash, and why most of them miss us. Pick one and call it.
6 min
 A twisted rope of plasma breaking away from the Sun with a flare flashing beneath it
Module 2 · Real eruption
Why the Sun erupts
Wound-up magnetic field, sunspots, and the snap that launches a storm. Watch a real one leave the Sun.
7 min
 The May 2024 CMEs stacked up between the Sun and Earth on the replay map
Module 3 · Replay
Watch a storm happen
The May 2024 superstorm, launch to arrival, in three stops. Call the arrival before you see it.
8 min
 A CME front crossing from the Sun toward Earth, slowing in the solar wind
Module 4 · One CME
How forecasting works
Change the solar wind and watch the same CME arrive hours earlier or later. Then see how often the model is right.
7 min
 The magnetic field of a CME merging with Earth's magnetic field
Module 5 · Lab
Predict it yourself
Commit to a number before the reveal, twice. Then launch your own CME through the real model.
8 min
 The aurora oval seen from above the north pole
Module 6 · Tonight
Tonight, for real
Read the live aurora oval and the field arriving at Earth, make a call, and come back tomorrow for your score.
5 min

Go deeper

Two optional deep dives, any time after Module 3
Earth's magnetic shield squeezed by the solar wind, seen from the side
Deep dive · Measured
When a storm hits Earth
The magnetic shield pushed inside satellite orbits, the air swelling under the space station, and current in the power grid. May 2024, measured.
8 min
 Chart of CMEs per month from 2016 to today, almost none in 2018 and more than a hundred a month by 2024
Deep dive · Ten years of data
The Sun keeps time
The eleven-year cycle: thirty times more CMEs at the peak than at the bottom, and where on the Sun they come from.
7 min
Teaching this?
Three 45-minute lesson plans, projector setup and the NGSS mapping. CME Tracker is listed in NASA's SOHO classroom links.
Lesson plans for teachers
No accounts, and no names or emails asked of students. Progress stays in your own browser. The site counts anonymous page views and task results (a random id, device type and country) to improve the course. Privacy details.
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