You are viewing the page for Aug. 5, 2018
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 378.4 km/sec
density: 2.4 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A2
1926 UT Aug05
24-hr: A2
1024 UT Aug05
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 05 Aug 18
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 05 Aug 2018

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 2 days
2018 total: 123 days (56%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
2008 total: 268 days (73%)
2007 total: 152 days (42%)
2006 total: 70 days (19%)

Updated 05 Aug 2018


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 70 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 05 Aug 2018

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.2 nT
Bz: 2.6 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 05 Aug 18

Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could unsettle Earth's magnetic field on Aug. 6th and 7th. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent Clouds The season for noctilucent clouds in he northern hemisphere is underway. Check here daily for the latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 08-05-2018 15:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2018 Aug 05 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
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: 2018 Aug 05 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
30 %
MINOR
01 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
30 %
SEVERE
20 %
40 %
 
Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018
What's up in space
       
 

All-inclusive Northern Lights trips in Tromsø, Norway. Small groups, big experiences! Highly qualified guides ensure unique and unforgettable adventures with a personal touch. Visit Explore the Arctic

 

A SOLAR WIND STREAM APPROACHES: Minor geomagnetic unrest is possible on Aug. 6th and 7th when Earth passes through a stream of fast-moving solar wind. The gaseous material is flowing from a small hole in the sun's atmosphere. Wind speeds could top 500 km/s (1.1 million mph) according to NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft, which encountered the stream before Earth did. Free: Aurora alerts.

IS SOLAR MINIMUM BOOSTING NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS? Anecdotal evidence is mounting: Something unusual may be happening to noctilucent clouds (NLCs). Normally, NLCs begin to fade in August as weather conditions in the mesosphere turn against the formation of meteor-seeded ice crystals. This August, however, NLCs are going strong. Consider this photo taken on August 3rd, not from the Arctic Circle where NLCs hang on longest, but instead from a thousand miles south in Schiffdorf, Germany:

"This is the first time I have ever seen noctilucent clouds in August," says photographer Michael Theusner. "It was a surprisingly bright display so late in the season!"

Even further south in Kraków, Poland, veteran observer Tomasz Adam saw them too. "Until now I have never seen NLCs in August," says Adam. "The last time I saw them almost this late in the season was on July 28, 2008, during a very deep solar minimum."

Indeed, solar minimum may be the key to this mystery. Previous studies have shown that NLCs sometimes intensify during solar minimum. Why? Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) rays from the sun dim during solar minimum. This creates a more favorable environment for water molecules, because EUV splits H2O apart. More water in the mesosphere means more noctilucent clouds.

Solar minimum conditions are in effect now as the sun has been without spots for 33 of the past 36 days. Perhaps noctilucent clouds are thriving as a result. Stay tuned for updates as August unfolds.

Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery

CRYSTAL EARTH GLOBE AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: On August 2, 2018, art met science 101,534 feet above Earth's surface. Here's what happened:

The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere, and this crystal globe went along for the ride. The young scientists  wanted to see what Earth looked like when viewed through the spherical lens ... of Earth. Answer: very cool.

You can have this globe for $149.95. The students are selling them to support their high-altitude balloon program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the crystal sphere in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. All sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

  All Sky Fireball Network
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. 5, 2018, the network reported 65 fireballs.
(43 sporadics, 18 Perseids, 4 Southern delta Aquariids)

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 August 5, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2018 OZ
2018-Aug-06
7 LD
9.7
36
2018 PC
2018-Aug-06
12.1 LD
9.3
53
2018 LQ2
2018-Aug-27
9.4 LD
1.5
39
2016 GK135
2018-Aug-28
16.8 LD
2.8
9
2016 NF23
2018-Aug-29
13.3 LD
9
93
1998 SD9
2018-Aug-29
4.2 LD
10.7
51
2018 DE1
2018-Aug-30
15.2 LD
6.5
28
2001 RQ17
2018-Sep-02
19.3 LD
8.3
107
2015 FP118
2018-Sep-03
12.3 LD
9.8
490
2017 SL16
2018-Sep-20
8.5 LD
6.4
25
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.

  Essential web links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
NOAA 27-Day Space Weather Forecasts
  fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong.
Aurora 30 min forecast
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
Spaceweather.com welcomes two supporters of science communication: SEO Phoenix AZ and CRAS, the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences.
   
Look no further to find the best Comox Valley Real Estate listings and homes for sale
   
Okanagan Real Estate
   
NASA Near Earth Asteroid Home Page
   
Chicago SEO Expert
   
Search Kelowna Real Estate Listings & Homes for Sale easily.
Find help on all Calgary Homes For Sale and Real Estate Listings. Great source for Edmonton Real Estate Listings & Homes For Sale
   

If you are a Youtuber and want to buy real Youtube views than try out Buyrealsocial.com for the best results possible!

   
To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings.
  These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters!
  more links...
       
©2017 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.