 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1.67 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 6.67 storm
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.37 nT
Bz: 5.72 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 05 Aug 23 
There are no significant equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA  Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for NLCs began on May 26th. The first clouds were detected inside the Arctic Circle by the NOAA 21 satellite. An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). For the rest of the season, daily maps from NOAA 21 will be presented here:
Updated: Jul 21, 2023
Each dot is a detected cloud. As the season progresses, these dots will multiply in number and shift in hue from blue to red as the brightness of the clouds intensifies.
What happened to NASA's AIM spacecraft, which has been monitoring NLCs since 2007? Earlier this year, the spacecraft's battery failed. As a result AIM is offline, perhaps permanently. There may be some hope of a recovery as AIM's orbit precesses into full sunlight in 2024. Until then, we will maintain AIM's iconic "daily daisy," frozen at Feb. 28, 2023, as a show of thanks for years of service and hope for future daisies:  | | | Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Aug05 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Aug 05 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 55 % | 55 % | CLASS X | 10 % | 10 % | Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2023 Aug 05 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 25 % | 20 % | MINOR | 10 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 20 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 20 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by ChatGPT and other Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | | ANOTHER CME IS COMING: A magnetic filament connecting two sunspots erupted this morning, Aug. 5th (~0500 UT), hurling a CME into space. NOAA models predict a glancing blow on Aug. 8th. The impact could spark G1-class geomagnetic storms with a chance of escalating to G2 or G3 because Earth's magnetosphere is already energized by last night's impact. Keep reading. Aurora alerts: SMS Text X-FLARE! Active sunspot AR3386 erupted again on Aug. 5th (2221 UT), producing a long-duration X1.6-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash: 
The flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere. This, in turn, caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean: map. Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal and other propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz. A CME is almost certainly emerging from the blast site. It won't be heading directly for Earth, but its flank might deliver a glancing blow on Aug. 8th or 9th, adding its energy to that of another CME already en route. Stay tuned for an updated forecast after we receive more data from SOHO coronagraphs. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter CME SPARKS STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM: As predicted, a CME struck Earth during the early hours of Aug. 5th (0253 UT). Sensors at the Canberra Magnetic Observatory in Australia measured a jolt of 22 nT to our planet's magnetic field. The impact sparked a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm with auroras in the USA as far south as Arizona. 
"The aurora was not visible to the unaided eye," says David Blanchard, who took the picture outside Flagstaff, "but my camera picked it up in a 30-sec exposure as a band of pink just above the horizon." Additional sightings in Missouri, Colorado and the Carolinas confirm that photographic auroras spread to low latitudes. "Photographic auroras" are nearly invisible to the human eye but easy targets for cameras with nighttime exposure settings. This storm also produced bright naked-eye auroras at higher latitudes such as Minnesota, Washington and Michigan. Did you miss the show? Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service received instant text messages when the CME hit and when the geomagnetic storm began. Give it a try. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter LIMITED EDITION ASTRONAUT SNOOPY: Everybody loves Snoopy. For the fan in your life, consider the gift of Astronaut Snoopy. On July 30th, 2023, this limited edition Funko Pop figurine flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon. 
You can have it for $119.95. Snoopy comes with a greeting card showing the space beagle in flight and telling the story of his trip to the stratosphere and back again. All sales support cosmic ray monitoring and hands-on STEM education. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
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Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 05, 2023, the network reported 24 fireballs.
(10 sporadics, 10 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] 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, 2023 there were 2335 potentially hazardous asteroids.
| Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2016 AW65 | 2023-Jul-31 | 16.7 LD | 5.7 | 47 | | 2023 OQ3 | 2023-Aug-01 | 3.9 LD | 9.8 | 35 | | 2023 OD5 | 2023-Aug-01 | 13.8 LD | 18.2 | 51 | | 2023 OS3 | 2023-Aug-01 | 2.5 LD | 4.8 | 10 | | 2023 OF1 | 2023-Aug-02 | 17.7 LD | 10.7 | 39 | | 2023 OY4 | 2023-Aug-02 | 3.2 LD | 17.6 | 30 | | 2023 OW4 | 2023-Aug-03 | 1.5 LD | 9.7 | 10 | | 2020 PN1 | 2023-Aug-03 | 10.8 LD | 4.8 | 29 | | 620082 | 2023-Aug-04 | 14 LD | 20.6 | 377 | | 2023 OR5 | 2023-Aug-04 | 7.4 LD | 7.4 | 32 | | 2023 OQ | 2023-Aug-06 | 9.9 LD | 21.3 | 145 | | 2004 KG1 | 2023-Aug-06 | 19.9 LD | 9.1 | 56 | | 2022 BS2 | 2023-Aug-11 | 17.3 LD | 8.2 | 30 | | 2023 OE5 | 2023-Aug-14 | 4 LD | 3.9 | 18 | | 2022 CP1 | 2023-Aug-17 | 13.8 LD | 9.8 | 12 | | 2011 QJ21 | 2023-Aug-19 | 13 LD | 15.1 | 45 | | 6037 | 2023-Aug-23 | 15.9 LD | 14.3 | 571 | | 2012 PZ17 | 2023-Aug-30 | 16.8 LD | 3.6 | 16 | | 2017 BY32 | 2023-Sep-02 | 16.4 LD | 3.5 | 19 | | 2021 JA5 | 2023-Sep-06 | 13.3 LD | 10.9 | 19 | | 2020 GE | 2023-Sep-08 | 14.9 LD | 1.4 | 8 | | 2020 RT2 | 2023-Sep-12 | 11 LD | 10 | 8 | | 2016 LY48 | 2023-Sep-16 | 5 LD | 10.8 | 99 | | 2010 TE | 2023-Sep-16 | 6.8 LD | 6 | 22 | | 523598 | 2023-Sep-20 | 19.8 LD | 25 | 239 | | 2019 SF6 | 2023-Sep-26 | 16.7 LD | 8.6 | 20 | | 2013 TG6 | 2023-Sep-28 | 3.6 LD | 4.1 | 17 | | 2009 UG | 2023-Sep-30 | 6.1 LD | 9 | 78 | | 349507 | 2023-Oct-03 | 16.5 LD | 21 | 696 | Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. | | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere | SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost 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 sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-year low: 
What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down. .Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Technical notes: 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. Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-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 Regener 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. | | | information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary | | | current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page | | | Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries | | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | | 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 |  | Getting YouTube comments is essential if you want to beat the algorithm! That’s why you need to buy YouTube comments from RealSocialz.com because they offer real USA comments you can customize. | | When looking for casinos to play online when the weather is bad, you can try casino online trucchi for Italian games. If you are not from Finland you can try the Swedish page Svenska casino online to find suitable games, check out svenskacasinoonline.net. Always check your local laws before playing with real money. | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | |  | | |  | ©2021 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |
