 | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 0.33 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2.67 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 6.20 nT Bz: -0.83 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 06 Jun 24  There are no equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA Polar Stratospheric Clouds Colorful Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops to a staggeringly low -85C. NASA's MERRA-2 climate model predicts when the air up there is cold enough:  On June 6, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is much too warm for Type II polar stratospheric clouds. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds They're back! The northern season for NLCs is underway. The first clouds were detected inside the Arctic Circle on May 25, 2024, by the NOAA 21 satellite. The clouds have since spread, and now observers are seeing from the ground as well:  Updated: June 4, 2024 An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). IN the daily map, above, 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. SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2024 Jun 06 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 50 % | 50 % | 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: 2024 Jun 06 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 20 % | MINOR | 01 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 25 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by 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. | | | THE HIGHEST SUNSPOT NUMBER IN 22 YEARS: The average sunspot number for May 2024 was 172, the highest value in 22 years. So far, June is even higher at 200. If this continues for the rest of the month, June could log the highest sunspot counts since Dec. 2001, rivaling the peak of potent Solar Cycle 23. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text THE LASER-LIKE TAIL OF COMET 12P: Today, Earth is passing through the orbital plane of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. "This is causing it to develop a laser-like anti-tail," reports astronomer Ian Griffin, who sends this photo from Otago, New Zealand:  "It was an amazing display," says Griffin. In Griffin's photo, the anti-tail is the very sharp line pointing toward the upper right. It's "anti" because it points directly opposite the comet's regular gas tail (lower left). What is this anti-tail? It's an optical illusion. Anti-tails appear when Earth passes through a comet's orbital plane. During the crossing, the sharp edge of the comet's fan-shaped dust tail narrows to a laser-like line and appears to point toward the sun. This phenomenon will be visible for the next few days. Southern hemisphere astronomers can find the comet in the constellation Lepus ~20 degrees below the celestial equator. With a magnitude of +7, the comet is an easy target for amateur telescopes. Submit your photos here. more images: from Michael Jaeger of Hakos, Namibia Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter STERLING SILVER GEOMAGNETIC CAT: On May 10, 2024, a CME slammed into Earth's magnetic field, sparking the biggest geomagnetic storm in 35 years. Moments later, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon directly into the storm. The Geomagnetic Cat Pendant went along for the ride:  This sterling silver feline floated through the stratosphere for 3 hours during the storm, gathering radiation data for the students' monitoring program. Later, when the sun set and the sky grew dark, red and green auroras danced above the Sierra Nevada mountains of California where the balloon was launched. You can have it for $219.95. The pendant comes with a greeting card showing the cat in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime gift. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter 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 Jun 06, 2024, the network reported 10 fireballs. (10 sporadics) 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, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.  | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2024 KB1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 1 LD | 11.1 | 8 | 2024 JP1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 18.5 LD | 4.7 | 24 | 2024 JC1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 15.1 LD | 4.8 | 34 | 2024 KO1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 7.2 LD | 7 | 13 | 1998 KY26 | 2024-Jun-01 | 12 LD | 5.3 | 25 | 2016 JC6 | 2024-Jun-01 | 19.9 LD | 7.1 | 189 | 2024 LF1 | 2024-Jun-02 | 7.1 LD | 8.9 | 11 | 2024 KZ | 2024-Jun-03 | 11.5 LD | 9.9 | 36 | 2024 KT1 | 2024-Jun-03 | 4.8 LD | 7.2 | 14 | 2024 LM | 2024-Jun-03 | 2.5 LD | 6.6 | 9 | 2024 KA2 | 2024-Jun-04 | 0.9 LD | 13.1 | 9 | 2024 KK1 | 2024-Jun-04 | 11.2 LD | 4.6 | 21 | 2024 KX1 | 2024-Jun-04 | 3.5 LD | 10.7 | 16 | 2024 JR17 | 2024-Jun-05 | 19.3 LD | 14.5 | 84 | 2008 YN2 | 2024-Jun-05 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 20 | 2024 LE1 | 2024-Jun-06 | 9.8 LD | 9.9 | 19 | 2024 LH1 | 2024-Jun-06 | 0 LD | 17.4 | 2 | 2021 LW3 | 2024-Jun-06 | 9.7 LD | 9.8 | 86 | 2024 KA1 | 2024-Jun-07 | 4.9 LD | 8.3 | 30 | 2024 LA | 2024-Jun-07 | 4.7 LD | 18.3 | 25 | 2024 LC | 2024-Jun-08 | 12.3 LD | 8.7 | 27 | 2024 CR9 | 2024-Jun-11 | 19.2 LD | 7.4 | 451 | 2024 LD | 2024-Jun-11 | 12.1 LD | 10.7 | 21 | 2022 XC1 | 2024-Jun-12 | 16.5 LD | 6.5 | 21 | 2022 WW11 | 2024-Jun-17 | 19.7 LD | 14.4 | 15 | 2024 KW1 | 2024-Jun-17 | 19.9 LD | 4 | 28 | 2024 KY1 | 2024-Jun-19 | 16.1 LD | 12.2 | 36 | 2024 LJ | 2024-Jun-22 | 8.9 LD | 18.5 | 71 | 2024 KN1 | 2024-Jun-23 | 14.7 LD | 4.6 | 28 | 2024 KJ | 2024-Jun-25 | 13.7 LD | 4.5 | 25 | 2019 NJ | 2024-Jun-27 | 17.2 LD | 10.1 | 66 | 415029 | 2024-Jun-27 | 17.3 LD | 25.9 | 2304 | 2022 MM1 | 2024-Jun-28 | 7.8 LD | 10.9 | 39 | 2010 XN | 2024-Jun-28 | 14.1 LD | 11.3 | 52 | 2022 HD1 | 2024-Jun-29 | 17.3 LD | 7.2 | 63 | 2017 MB3 | 2024-Jun-30 | 5 LD | 6.5 | 30 | 2024 JJ25 | 2024-Jun-30 | 10.5 LD | 9.4 | 117 | 2022 BY39 | 2024-Jul-02 | 13.2 LD | 3 | 4 | 2024 LH | 2024-Jul-02 | 4.4 LD | 4.3 | 32 | 2024 KQ1 | 2024-Jul-04 | 14.9 LD | 6.9 | 57 | 2022 YS5 | 2024-Jul-11 | 11 LD | 5.8 | 38 | 2024 BY15 | 2024-Jul-16 | 16.2 LD | 0.7 | 16 | 2011 MW1 | 2024-Jul-25 | 10.1 LD | 8 | 120 | 2011 AM24 | 2024-Jul-26 | 16.8 LD | 6.2 | 281 | 523664 | 2024-Jul-28 | 14.9 LD | 23.7 | 680 | 2020 PN1 | 2024-Aug-02 | 18 LD | 5.5 | 29 | 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. See also, all satellite statistics. | | 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 |  | Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. |  | Marketing yourself on YouTube is hard without real organic views on your videos. You can buy organic YouTube views from and enjoy social boosting that is actually real. Highly recommended! |  | 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. 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