 | | | 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: 10.4 nT
Bz: -2.2 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2348 UT Coronal Holes: 06 Jun 18 
There are no significant equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA  Noctilucent Clouds The season for northern noctilucent clouds is beginning now. Check here daily for the latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 06-06-2018 05:38:13 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2018 Jun 06 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 Jun 06 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 10 % | MINOR | 01 % | 01 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 10 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | 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 | | | SPACE WEATHER VS. SUPERCOMPUTERS: Solar minimum is coming. Should supercomputers worry? Researchers have long known that cosmic ray neutrons and other high energy particles can cause errors and even crash supercomputers in mid-calculation. That's worrisome because cosmic rays are intensifying with the decline of the sunspot cycle. Hewlett-Packard is even testing a supercomputer on the International Space Station to see how cosmic rays affect it. Improved shielding and error-correcting codes may yet solve the problem. Meanwhile, stay tuned for ... <glitch> ... solar minimum. A SUNSPOT NAMED "HUBBLE": For a split second on June 1st, the sunspot number doubled. Michael Marston of Brisbane, Australia, was rolling his video camera as a tiny black speck raced across the sun, almost skimming sunspot group AR2712. The extra "sunspot" was the Hubble Space Telescope: 
"Hubble is only about the size of a bus, and it was extremely far away, but it was visible to my video camera running at 60 frames per second," says Marston. "Given the Sun is so bright, I couldn't see anything with my unaided eye. I didn't dare look directly into the Sun, so I used a clock and timing to capture the transit." He knew when to trigger the recording thanks to Calsky.com, which predicts transits of the HST across the sun and Moon. "I got the prediction about a week ahead of time," he says. Not long after the transit, the real sunspot AR2712 began to dissolve now. It's gone now, but Hubble is still there. Check it out. Realtime NLC Photo Gallery
WE'RE GOING TO NEW ZEALAND: For the past two years, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been traveling around the world, launching cosmic ray balloons to map our planet's radiation environment. We've sampled deep space radiation over Sweden, Mexico, Norway, Chile and almost a dozen US states. This month we're adding New Zealand to the list. On June 18th, a team of 11 Earth to Sky students and two mentors will fly from California to the north island of New Zealand, where we will launch 3 research balloons in only 10 days. 
Our hosts are Terry and Linda Coles of Enternet Online Limited (EOL), a leading New Zealand internet service provider based in Tauranga. EOL has been a supporter of Earth to Sky Calculus for many years. They sponsored one of our earliest balloon launches in 2013 when we flew their mascot, EVA the Cow, to the stratosphere. While we are in New Zealand, they will be donating all of our lodging and transportation. Thanks again, EOL!
Not only will we be measuring cosmic rays, but also we will train New Zealand students to launch balloons, hopefully kickstarting a STEM balloon program in the southern hemisphere. Five schools are participating: 1. Mount Maunganui College; 2. Otumoetai College; 3. Tauranga Girls College; 4. Tauranga Boys College; and 5 Bethlehem College. Some of those schools will be sending their own experiments to the stratosphere alongside Earth to Sky radiation sensors.
We can't wait to get to New Zealand and share our adventure. Stay tuned for more information about what we hope to learn about cosmic rays by visiting the 8th continent. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery THE SPACE HAMMER FOR FATHER'S DAY: Just in time for Father's Day: The Space Hammer. On June 2nd, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload of hammers to the edge of space, 35.0 km (115,000 feet) above Earth's surface on board a high altitude helium balloon. You can have one for $97.95: 
These compact 8 oz. hammers are light enough to fly on a balloon yet dense enough to deliver a powerful blow. The magnetic head holds a nail for one-handed starting, and the stubby 6 in. length is perfect for tight work areas. Each space hammer comes with a unique gift card showing the tool floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora 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 Jun. 6, 2018, the network reported 9 fireballs.
(8 sporadics, 1 Northern June Aquilid)  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 June 6, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2018 LB | 2018-Jun-01 | 2.1 LD | 7.3 | 23 | | 2018 KE1 | 2018-Jun-01 | 10.8 LD | 16.2 | 33 | | 2018 LC | 2018-Jun-02 | 17.3 LD | 5.7 | 29 | | 2018 EJ4 | 2018-Jun-10 | 5.6 LD | 6.2 | 195 | | 2015 DP155 | 2018-Jun-11 | 9 LD | 4.4 | 170 | | 2018 LK | 2018-Jun-15 | 7.7 LD | 12.4 | 154 | | 2018 KC3 | 2018-Jun-19 | 14.6 LD | 8.8 | 88 | | 2017 YE5 | 2018-Jun-21 | 15.6 LD | 15.5 | 513 | | 467309 | 2018-Jun-23 | 17.9 LD | 14 | 355 | | 441987 | 2018-Jun-24 | 7.3 LD | 12.6 | 178 | 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 | | | 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 |  | 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. | |
