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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 402.8 km/sec
density: 13.5 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2351 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A4
2114 UT Dec31
24-hr: A5
1353 UT Dec31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 31 Dec 17
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 31 Dec 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 3 days
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%)

Updated 31 Dec 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 70 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 31 Dec 2017

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.2 nT
Bz: -7.6 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2351 UT
Coronal Holes: 31 Dec 17

Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on Jan. 1-2. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent Clouds Our connection with NASA's AIM spacecraft has been restored! New images from AIM show that the southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is underway. Come back to this spot every day to see AIM's "daily daisy," which reveals the dance of electric-blue NLCs around the Antarctic Circle..
Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated at: 12-31-2017 16:55:03
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2017 Dec 31 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: 2017 Dec 31 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
30 %
MINOR
20 %
15 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
30 %
SEVERE
50 %
45 %
 
Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017
What's up in space
       
 

Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that we now have TWO aurora webcams covering nearly a 200° view of Abisko National Park in Sweden! Watch the auroras dance live, all season long here.

 

GEOMAGNETIC STORM PREDICTED: NOAA forecasters say there is a 50% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Jan. 1, 2018, when a stream of solar wind is expected to engulf Earth's magnetic field. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras mixed with bright moonlight. Happy New Year! Free: Aurora alerts.

CRAZY CARBON MONOXIDE COMET: For months, amateur astronomers have been watching Comet PanSTARRS (C/2016 R2) beyond the orbit of Mars, essentially, go crazy. Jets of material have been spewing from its nucleus, sometimes waving back and forth, as clouds of blue gas billow down the comet's strangely-formed tail. Here is a typical movie recorded on Dec. 25th by Michael Jäger of Austria showing a blob of material catapulting away from the comet's core:

What's going on?  The answer may be "carbon monoxide" (CO). New observations by astronomers K. Wierzchos and M. Womack of the University of South Florida suggest that CO is abundant in Comet PanSTARRS. They used the Arizona Radio Observatory's 10-m Submillimeter Telescope at Mount Graham to detect as many as 4.7 x 1028 CO molecules emerging from the comet's core every second. "This comet appears to be very CO-rich," they wrote in International Astronomical Union telegram CBET 4464.

Carbon monoxide can make a comet behave strangely because, when frozen as it is in comets, CO is extremely volatile. It can sublimate (change suddenly from solid to gas) at temperatures as low as -248 C (25 K). Only a little bit of sunlight is therefore required to turn deposits of frozen CO into wild jets and billowing clouds. Furthermore, ionized CO+ produces a blue glow--the same color as the tail of Comet PanSTARRS.

"It is quite a rare sight," says veteran comet observer Michael Mattiazzo of Australia. "The last notable comet with high CO was Comet Humason in 1962. It will be very interesting to watch this comet as it makes its closest approach to the sun (2.6 AU) in May 2018."

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

FALSE AURORAS: The space weather forecast did not call for auroras in New Hampshire last night. Yet when Stephanie Graudons of Lebanon NH looked outside at 3 am, the sky was filled with colorful lights. "An unexpected sight," she says, "these light pillars were so amazing that I dragged my fiance out of bed and out into the -14 degree night to photograph them!"

"Shivering in a foot of new snow in a nearby baseball field, we watched until they faded away," says Graudons. "It was well worth the lack of sleep."

Sometimes called "false auroras," light pillars  are caused by ice crystals in the air. The crystals' flat faces intercept urban lights and spread them into colorful columns. No solar activity is required for the phenomenon. The only ingredients are ice and light pollution.

The different colors of the pillars are caused by various color temperatures of street lights. Warm orange pillars come from traditional high pressure sodium lamps, while bright white pillars come from newer LED lamps.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

EXTENDED! STUDENT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: For the holiday season only, we're reducing the cost of payload space on Earth to Sky Calculus balloons from $500 to only $299. Buy a ticket to space on or before Jan. 1st and your student can send an experiment, photo, or keepsake item to the stratosphere, completely supported by an Earth to Sky Calculus launch and recovery team.

This is a great kickstarter for springtime science fair projects. Experiments will be flown and returned along with video footage, GPS tracking, temperature, pressure, altimetry and radiation data.

To take advantage of the discounted rate, payment must be received before Jan. 1st. However, the flight can take place at any time in the next 12 months.

Conditions: No mammals. Plants and non-pathogenic microbes are allowed. Generally speaking, experiments should weigh less than a few hundred grams and occupy a volume less than that of a school lunchbox. A brainstorming session is included with each certificate. Dr. Tony Phillips and other members of the Earth to Sky team will chat with recipients to help them craft an experiment that will work in the harsh environment of the stratosphere.

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

LUNAR FOGBOW VS. NORTHERN LIGHTS: Deep inside the Arctic Circle, aurora tour guide Tim Nordström of Abisko, Sweden, routinely sees green curtains hanging down from the sky. On Dec. 28th, he saw something different: a pale arc reaching out of the ground:


"It was amazing," says Nordström. "We were hiking through a frost-covered forest. The air was cold (-25 C) and crisp. At first the fog was thick above us, but after a while it started to thin out so we could see the green auroras overhead. A bright shaft of moonlight lanced through the fog --and that's when we saw the fogbow."

Fogbows are cousins of rainbows and they are formed in essentially the same way: light bounces in and out of water droplets to produce a luminous arc. In this case, the droplets were supercooled (to remain liquid in the freezing air) and much smaller than typical raindrops. Tiny droplets cause a diffraction effect not seen in ordinary rainbows; as a result, the colors are smeared together resulting in a nearly-white arc.

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 Dec. 31, 2017, the network reported 16 fireballs.
(15 sporadics, 1 December Leonis Minorid)

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 December 31, 2017 there were 1872 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2017 YR3
2017-Dec-25
8.5 LD
6.5
30
2017 YR4
2017-Dec-25
18.3 LD
6.7
51
2017 YQ1
2017-Dec-26
5.1 LD
21.1
43
2017 YV4
2017-Dec-26
17.3 LD
9
39
2017 YQ6
2017-Dec-27
1.9 LD
12.3
9
2017 YD2
2017-Dec-27
2.2 LD
8.3
6
2017 YZ4
2017-Dec-28
0.6 LD
9.6
8
2017 YB6
2017-Dec-29
6.1 LD
12.3
11
2017 YP6
2017-Dec-29
14.2 LD
16
34
2017 XG1
2017-Dec-29
16.3 LD
9.9
38
2017 QL33
2017-Dec-30
13.3 LD
8.2
196
2017 YU1
2017-Dec-30
7.8 LD
7.6
21
2017 YE7
2017-Dec-30
0.8 LD
20.2
7
2017 YL5
2017-Dec-31
16.4 LD
19.6
61
2017 YD
2018-Jan-01
19.1 LD
4.1
30
2015 RT1
2018-Jan-02
20 LD
9
30
2017 YD7
2018-Jan-03
4.7 LD
10.5
12
2017 YJ7
2018-Jan-07
11.9 LD
5.7
20
2017 YK7
2018-Jan-07
10.6 LD
10.7
43
2017 YX4
2018-Jan-08
15 LD
7.3
64
2017 XT61
2018-Jan-08
11.3 LD
10.8
84
2004 FH
2018-Jan-10
20 LD
8.5
26
2017 YU3
2018-Jan-14
18 LD
12.9
53
306383
2018-Jan-22
14.4 LD
17.4
178
2002 CB19
2018-Feb-02
10.5 LD
15.6
36
276033
2018-Feb-04
11 LD
34
646
2015 BN509
2018-Feb-09
12.9 LD
17.7
257
1991 VG
2018-Feb-11
18.4 LD
2.1
7
2014 WQ202
2018-Feb-11
15.1 LD
19.8
62
2016 CO246
2018-Feb-22
15.3 LD
5.4
21
2017 DR109
2018-Feb-24
3.7 LD
7.4
11
2016 FU12
2018-Feb-26
13.2 LD
4.5
15
2014 EY24
2018-Feb-27
14.8 LD
8
54
2015 BF511
2018-Feb-28
11.7 LD
5.7
39
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
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