| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 4 unsettled 24-hr max: Kp= 4 unsettled explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 4.5 nT Bz: -2.1 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2351 UT Coronal Holes: 29 Aug 17 Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could reach Earth on Aug. 31st. Credit: NASA/SDO. Noctilucent Clouds They're back! Images of noctilucent clouds from NASA's AIM spacecraft are available again. The spacecraft's orbit had recently changed, requiring a new way to point AIM's science instruments. This problem has now been solved, and "daily daisies" have returned to Spaceweather.com. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 08-23-2017 16:55:04 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2017 Aug 28 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 10 % | 10 % | CLASS X | 01 % | 01 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2017 Aug 28 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 30 % | MINOR | 01 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 10 % | 20 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that our Customisable Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today! | | | GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: NOAA forecasters say there is a 30% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms on Aug. 31st when a fast moving stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The source of the wind is a canyon-shaped hole in the sun's atmosphere. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras this Thursday night. Free: Aurora Alerts FLY ME TO (THE SHADOW OF) THE MOON: Last week during the Great American Solar Eclipse, many sky watchers in the path of totality noticed contrails criss-crossing the sky, a sign of airplanes dipping in and out of the Moon's shadow. Wonder what they saw? Tom A. Warner was onboard one of those planes, and he shares this view from the window seat: "We got the unique opportunity to view the solar eclipse from 39,000 ft over Alliance, Nebraska," says Warner. "We set up a holding pattern 20 minutes prior to the Moon's first contact with the sun and orbited within the totality shadow path while watching the eclipse progress." "We saw the shadow of the Moon race towards us from the west and the sky went very dark as we entered," he says. "We could see lights on the ground, and the view of the Moon and corona was something we will never forget. Words and pictures will never be able to fully describe what we experienced or the emotions we felt." Many people on the ground felt the same way. But you have to wonder ... was it even better 39,000 feet high? Travel tip: Book the window seat for April 8, 2024. Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery UNIQUE SOLAR ECLIPSE POSTERS: On August 21, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality of the Great American Solar Eclipse. They aimed to photograph the Moon's shadow from the stratosphere--and they succeeded. By popular demand, we are now offering posters of the eclipse as seen from the edge of space. You can have one for $59.95: These 18"x24" posters are printed on premium glossy paper and ready for framing. Each one comes with an information card describing the balloon flight and the location of the shadow. Don't like this poster? There are more choices in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support upper atmospheric research and STEM education. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All proceeds support hands-on STEM education AURORA SEASON IS BEGINNING: For reasons researchers do not fully understand, the weeks around equinoxes have more geomagnetic disturbances than any other time of year. Auroras love equinoxes. We are now just weeks away from the northern autumnal equinox and, right on cue, the auroras have appeared: "Last night, my Northern Lights season finally kicked off with a beautiful aurora dancing in the sky," says photographer Göran Strand of Frösön, Sweden. "We're closing in on the autumnal equinox, so hopefully we will be getting more auroras in the coming weeks." In addition to the equinox effect, it also helps that Arctic skies are darkening as the midnight sun sets after a long summer. Midnight is once again becoming a velvety-dark canvas where solar wind can paint the Northern Lights. Browse the aurora gallery for recent sightings --and stay tuned for more. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery 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 Aug. 29, 2017, the network reported 16 fireballs. (14 sporadics, 1 alpha Aurigid, 1 Northern iota Aquariid) 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] 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 August 29, 2017 there were 1803 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2017 PE | 2017-Aug-24 | 19.4 LD | 7.1 | 47 | 2017 QJ2 | 2017-Aug-25 | 9.1 LD | 20.2 | 22 | 2017 QQ17 | 2017-Aug-26 | 1 LD | 21.2 | 8 | 2017 QX1 | 2017-Aug-26 | 12.9 LD | 7 | 39 | 2017 QU1 | 2017-Aug-27 | 16.2 LD | 10.1 | 37 | 2017 PL26 | 2017-Aug-28 | 14.2 LD | 8.4 | 128 | 2017 QN1 | 2017-Aug-30 | 5.5 LD | 10.5 | 17 | 2017 QP2 | 2017-Aug-30 | 10.1 LD | 7.5 | 33 | 2017 QQ1 | 2017-Aug-31 | 4.8 LD | 10.2 | 39 | 3122 | 2017-Sep-01 | 18.5 LD | 13.5 | 5376 | 2017 QT17 | 2017-Sep-01 | 17.3 LD | 10 | 55 | 2017 QG18 | 2017-Sep-01 | 4.4 LD | 6.6 | 13 | 2017 QV32 | 2017-Sep-02 | 12 LD | 11 | 21 | 2017 QR32 | 2017-Sep-02 | 2.8 LD | 18 | 17 | 2017 OP68 | 2017-Sep-10 | 20 LD | 11.7 | 296 | 2017 QK18 | 2017-Sep-11 | 14.8 LD | 7.8 | 47 | 2014 RC | 2017-Sep-11 | 15.1 LD | 8.9 | 16 | 2017 PR25 | 2017-Sep-23 | 17.9 LD | 13.5 | 224 | 1989 VB | 2017-Sep-29 | 7.9 LD | 6.3 | 408 | 2012 TC4 | 2017-Oct-12 | 0.1 LD | 7.6 | 16 | 2005 TE49 | 2017-Oct-13 | 8.5 LD | 11.2 | 16 | 2013 UM9 | 2017-Oct-15 | 17 LD | 7.8 | 39 | 2006 TU7 | 2017-Oct-18 | 18.7 LD | 13.3 | 148 | 171576 | 2017-Oct-22 | 5.8 LD | 21.2 | 677 | 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 | Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here: This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed 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. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California. What is this all about? Approximately 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 radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015: Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation. 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. The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-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 Reneger and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | a proud supporter of science education and Spaceweather.com | | fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | | Beautyz for top beauty products reviews and their buying guides | | Reviews here can help you to pick up best memory foam mattresses. | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | | | | | ©2017 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |