 | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 3.67 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 4.33 unsettled explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 5.74 nT Bz: 2.93 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 18 Apr 23  There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun.Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds Bad news: NASA's AIM spacecraft, which monitors noctilucent clouds, may be dead due to problems with an onboard battery. Mission controllers have not yet given up all hope, so stay tuned. Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Apr18 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Apr 18 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 40 % | 40 % | 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 Apr 18 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 40 % | 40 % | MINOR | 20 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 10 % | MINOR | 25 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 60 % | 60 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora tour guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too! | | | GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: A CME struck Earth's magnetic field today, April 18th, at 1401 UT. The initial impact did not spark a geomagnetic storm, but now a storm is brewing as Earth passes throuigh the CME's magnetized wake. Minor G1-class storms with high-latitude auroras are possible in the hours ahead. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. MAGNETIC FILAMENTS ON THE SUN: Not every dark object on the sun is a sunspot. There are also magnetic filaments. When amateur astronomer Michael Borman of Evansville, Indiana, photographed the sun on April 17th, he counted more than a dozen of them:  Magnetic filaments are narrow tubes of magnetism filled with plasma suspended above the surface of the sun. They look dark because the plasma inside is a little cooler than the underlying star. Magnetic filaments are famously unstable, and they often erupt, hurling CMEs into space. The most important filament in Borman's photo is the extremely long one stretching across the sun's high-northern hemisphere. Parts of it have been exploding for days like this on April 15th and this on April 17th. Both of those sample eruptions propelled CMEs into space, albeit not toward Earth. With so many filaments on the sun, a geoeffective CME may be just a matter of time. Stay tuned. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SIERRA MOONRISE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Sierra Moonrise Pendant. It flew to the edge of space on April 15, 2023, floating on a cosmic ray balloon 117,400 feet above the historically-snowy Sierra Nevada mountains of California:  You can have it for $179.95. The sterling silver pendant shows the craggy Sierra range with a full Moonstone rising overhead. It makes a great birthday, anniversary or Mother's day gift. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education 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 Apr 18 2023, 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 April 18, 2023 there were 2327 potentially hazardous asteroids.  | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2019 GK21 | 2023-Apr-13 | 15.2 LD | 8.1 | 27 | 2023 GR1 | 2023-Apr-13 | 6.2 LD | 7.6 | 31 | 2022 YK9 | 2023-Apr-13 | 19.9 LD | 9.9 | 175 | 2023 HM | 2023-Apr-13 | 2.1 LD | 19.4 | 10 | 436774 | 2023-Apr-13 | 12.5 LD | 17.6 | 719 | 2023 HN | 2023-Apr-13 | 4.8 LD | 17.8 | 21 | 2023 HC | 2023-Apr-14 | 11.2 LD | 6.6 | 20 | 2023 HA | 2023-Apr-14 | 2.2 LD | 8.9 | 11 | 2023 HY | 2023-Apr-14 | 1 LD | 15.3 | 8 | 2023 HE | 2023-Apr-14 | 0.8 LD | 13.9 | 11 | 2023 HC1 | 2023-Apr-14 | 6.4 LD | 10.8 | 12 | 2023 HZ | 2023-Apr-15 | 0.7 LD | 13 | 6 | 2023 GZ | 2023-Apr-15 | 2 LD | 8.6 | 11 | 2023 GT1 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.4 LD | 2.7 | 8 | 2023 GC1 | 2023-Apr-15 | 15.4 LD | 6.6 | 16 | 2023 GD2 | 2023-Apr-15 | 8.8 LD | 6.1 | 11 | 2023 HS | 2023-Apr-15 | 1.1 LD | 9.5 | 11 | 2023 FN13 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.6 LD | 4.5 | 13 | 2023 GA2 | 2023-Apr-16 | 12.7 LD | 18.7 | 80 | 2020 BV14 | 2023-Apr-16 | 17.8 LD | 8.2 | 81 | 2020 FQ6 | 2023-Apr-16 | 13.1 LD | 9.7 | 36 | 2023 HB1 | 2023-Apr-16 | 7.2 LD | 12.6 | 22 | 2023 GM1 | 2023-Apr-17 | 2.2 LD | 6.4 | 12 | 2023 GU | 2023-Apr-17 | 10.9 LD | 11.2 | 31 | 2023 GM | 2023-Apr-17 | 8.4 LD | 20.1 | 107 | 2023 HB | 2023-Apr-17 | 0.5 LD | 12.2 | 3 | 2023 HJ1 | 2023-Apr-17 | 9 LD | 5.6 | 18 | 2023 GE2 | 2023-Apr-17 | 5.9 LD | 6 | 9 | 2023 GO | 2023-Apr-17 | 18.4 LD | 6.7 | 29 | 2023 GK2 | 2023-Apr-18 | 3.4 LD | 8.2 | 7 | 2023 GS | 2023-Apr-18 | 5.9 LD | 8.5 | 22 | 2023 HH | 2023-Apr-18 | 0.4 LD | 10.6 | 6 | 2023 GQ1 | 2023-Apr-18 | 1.1 LD | 2.6 | 3 | 2023 HT | 2023-Apr-18 | 0.5 LD | 10.7 | 4 | 2023 GR | 2023-Apr-18 | 18.7 LD | 9.1 | 60 | 2023 GO2 | 2023-Apr-19 | 2.4 LD | 9.3 | 18 | 2023 GV1 | 2023-Apr-19 | 17.6 LD | 3.6 | 23 | 2023 HF | 2023-Apr-19 | 2.9 LD | 14.5 | 12 | 2023 HK | 2023-Apr-20 | 0.9 LD | 15.9 | 14 | 2023 HJ | 2023-Apr-20 | 4.9 LD | 9.2 | 11 | 2023 HQ | 2023-Apr-22 | 15.5 LD | 7.3 | 19 | 2021 HU | 2023-Apr-23 | 18.2 LD | 12.5 | 31 | 2023 HX | 2023-Apr-23 | 17.6 LD | 11.8 | 41 | 2023 GU2 | 2023-Apr-24 | 19.5 LD | 7.7 | 32 | 2023 GO1 | 2023-Apr-25 | 10.9 LD | 11.9 | 20 | 2006 HV5 | 2023-Apr-26 | 6.3 LD | 17.4 | 400 | 2023 GG1 | 2023-Apr-26 | 12.6 LD | 10 | 40 | 2021 JF2 | 2023-Apr-28 | 16.6 LD | 8 | 19 | 2023 GF2 | 2023-Apr-30 | 11.5 LD | 4.8 | 29 | 2018 VS6 | 2023-May-01 | 5.2 LD | 11.6 | 14 | 2023 HV | 2023-May-01 | 3.6 LD | 4.3 | 15 | 2006 HX57 | 2023-May-05 | 6.8 LD | 11 | 32 | 2023 HG1 | 2023-May-09 | 10.9 LD | 2.4 | 19 | 2011 KY15 | 2023-May-18 | 19.9 LD | 14.3 | 54 | 2021 JK7 | 2023-May-22 | 16.7 LD | 22.9 | 48 | 2023 GY2 | 2023-May-22 | 18.2 LD | 11.4 | 99 | 2019 UJ3 | 2023-May-23 | 15.5 LD | 9.8 | 21 | 2023 CL3 | 2023-May-24 | 18.9 LD | 7.3 | 121 | 2021 KO2 | 2023-May-29 | 15.8 LD | 13.9 | 9 | 2012 KP24 | 2023-May-31 | 10.3 LD | 12.4 | 19 | 2018 KR | 2023-Jun-07 | 6.5 LD | 4.9 | 19 | 2017 UJ2 | 2023-Jun-07 | 5.3 LD | 5.6 | 2 | 488453 | 2023-Jun-12 | 8.3 LD | 21.5 | 493 | 2022 WN4 | 2023-Jun-13 | 10.8 LD | 15.1 | 158 | 2020 DB5 | 2023-Jun-15 | 11.3 LD | 9.5 | 490 | 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! 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