| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 3 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 3.3 nT Bz: 2.7 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2344 UT Coronal Holes: 23 Jan 22 Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on Jan 25. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The southern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds has begun. NASA's AIM spacecraft detected the first electric-blue puffs over Antarctica on Dec. 14th. Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated at: SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Jan 23 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: 2022 Jan 23 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 35 % | 25 % | MINOR | 15 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 05 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 30 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Lights Over Lapland has a full catalogue of exciting adventures in Abisko National Park, Sweden! Check out our daytime and evening activities and book your adventure! | | | GLANCING-BLOW CMEs: In recent days, the sun has produced multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs). None of them is heading directly toward Earth; nevertheless, they might touch our planet. Glancing blows are possible on Jan. 23rd, 24th, and 26th. The impacts, if they occur, are not expected to cause geomagnetic storms but could brighten auroras inside the Arctic Circle. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. A SUNSET FROM TONGA? When the sun goes down tonight, take a look at the fading sky. If the twilight turns purple, you might have spotted a "Tonga sunset." Heiko Ulbricht photographed this example Jan. 21st in Großopitz, Germany: "A strong purple light appeared 26 min after sunset," says Ulbricht. "This could be aerosols from the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha' apai volcano earlier this month." Indeed it could. On Jan. 15th, the volcano hurled 400 million kilograms of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, reaching altitudes never before seen by NASA's fleet of Earth-orbiting satellites. A huge cloud of sulfurous aerosols passed over Australia and has since been spreading around the world through the stratosphere. Purple sunsets may be a sign that these aerosols have reached you. Volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere scatter blue light which, when mixed with ordinary sunset red, produces a purple hue. But purple isn't the only thing to look for. In addition, sky watchers should be alert for a bright yellow twilight arch, fine cloud structures in the arch, and long purple rays. These are all potential signs of a "Tonga sunset." If you see one, submit your picture here. Realtime Volcanic Sunset Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SUPER-FAST ROTATING ASTEROID: On asteroid 2022 AB, one day is only 3 minutes long. Amateur astronomer Filipp Romanov proved it on Jan. 20th when the asteroid flew past Earth almost 10 million km away. "I monitored the flyby using a 14-inch telescope in Canada," he says. "And I measured the asteroid's light curve." Here it is: "The spin period is only 182 seconds," says Romanov. Believe it or not, this is not the fastest-known spinning asteroid. It's not even in the top 10. Astronomers have discovered 97 space rocks with shorter days than 2022 AB. The fastest is 2017 QG18 with a spin period of only 24 seconds. How can asteroids spin so fast? Small asteroids like 2017 QG18 (width=10 meters) and 2022 AB (width=70 meters) get their angular momentum from collisions. Glancing blows from other asteroids spin them up, creating asteroid "days" of incredible brevity. Larger asteroids spin more slowly. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter VALENTINE'S SPACE PUP: You've heard of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Now let us introduce you to Aphrodoggy. This lovable puppy just traveled to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon: You can have it for $109.95. The students are selling plush pups to support their high-altitude ballooning program. Holding a red rose for Valentine's day, each snuggly canine comes with a greeting card showing the 9-inch tall puppy in flight and telling the story of her 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 Jan 23, 2022, the network reported 4 fireballs. (4 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 January 23, 2022 there were 2255 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2021 BA | 2022-Jan-18 | 9.8 LD | 9.1 | 22 | 2022 AW | 2022-Jan-18 | 9.4 LD | 10.1 | 49 | 2022 AA6 | 2022-Jan-18 | 12.1 LD | 4.5 | 13 | 7482 | 2022-Jan-18 | 5.2 LD | 19.6 | 1732 | 2022 BE | 2022-Jan-19 | 2.4 LD | 8 | 9 | 2022 AB | 2022-Jan-20 | 9.7 LD | 5.6 | 68 | 2022 BH | 2022-Jan-20 | 9.8 LD | 7.4 | 24 | 2022 AE6 | 2022-Jan-20 | 4.7 LD | 10.6 | 27 | 2022 AX4 | 2022-Jan-21 | 7.9 LD | 6.9 | 21 | 2018 PN22 | 2022-Jan-21 | 11.4 LD | 2.7 | 11 | 2017 XC62 | 2022-Jan-24 | 18.7 LD | 4.3 | 112 | 2022 BF | 2022-Jan-26 | 1.3 LD | 12.4 | 13 | 2022 BB | 2022-Jan-26 | 2.2 LD | 7 | 15 | 2021 BZ | 2022-Jan-27 | 17.6 LD | 14.6 | 39 | 2022 AN5 | 2022-Jan-28 | 10.2 LD | 4.9 | 22 | 2022 AG6 | 2022-Jan-28 | 7.6 LD | 3.7 | 19 | 2022 AA | 2022-Feb-04 | 6.6 LD | 4.3 | 43 | 2018 CA1 | 2022-Feb-05 | 9.8 LD | 15.1 | 32 | 2022 AV4 | 2022-Feb-07 | 19.2 LD | 3.4 | 22 | 2007 UY1 | 2022-Feb-08 | 13.9 LD | 6.6 | 89 | 2020 DF | 2022-Feb-14 | 12 LD | 8.6 | 20 | 2018 CW2 | 2022-Feb-18 | 2.2 LD | 10.8 | 25 | 2020 CX1 | 2022-Feb-18 | 7.2 LD | 8.2 | 54 | 455176 | 2022-Feb-22 | 14 LD | 25.1 | 257 | 2017 CX1 | 2022-Feb-23 | 15.2 LD | 5 | 8 | 2016 QJ44 | 2022-Feb-24 | 19.6 LD | 8.5 | 324 | 2021 QO2 | 2022-Feb-25 | 20 LD | 11 | 65 | 2020 UO4 | 2022-Feb-28 | 18.5 LD | 2.1 | 7 | 138971 | 2022-Mar-04 | 12.8 LD | 12 | 749 | 2021 UL7 | 2022-Mar-04 | 11.5 LD | 2 | 23 | 2020 DC | 2022-Mar-06 | 3.9 LD | 4.9 | 16 | 2021 EY1 | 2022-Mar-10 | 10.1 LD | 15.5 | 16 | 2015 DR215 | 2022-Mar-11 | 17.5 LD | 8.3 | 290 | 2018 GY | 2022-Mar-13 | 11.9 LD | 10.7 | 43 | 2016 FZ12 | 2022-Mar-19 | 2.2 LD | 8.3 | 16 | 2020 SQ | 2022-Mar-21 | 2.8 LD | 6 | 12 | 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 | 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 (Nov. 2021): Our balloons have just measured a sudden drop in atmospheric radiation. It happened during the strong geomagnetic storms of Nov. 3-4, 2021. Here are the data: This is called a "Forbush decrease," named after American physicist Scott Forbush who studied cosmic rays in the early 20th century. It happens when a CME from the sun sweeps past Earth and literally pushes cosmic rays away from our planet. Radiation from deep space that would normally pepper Earth's upper atmosphere is briefly wiped out. We have measured Forbush decreases before. For example, here's one from Sept. 2014. The Forbush Decrease of Nov. 3-4, 2021, was the deepest in the history of our 7-year atmospheric monitoring program. Radiation levels in the stratosphere over California dropped nearly 20%, more than doubling the previous record from our dataset. En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes, so we can sample radiation where planes fly. This plot shows how the Forbush decrease was restricted to the stratosphere; it did not affect lower levels of the atmosphere: The dose rates shown above are expressed 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. The higher you fly, the more radiation you will absorb. .Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can seed clouds, 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. Somewhat more controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) link 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 first graph ("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 | | 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 | | Going above and beyond to provide the best homes listings in the Comox real estate market to keep you up to date and informed | | Looking for sports betting companies not registered on GamStop? CasinoGap has presented a list of sites not on GamStop available for UK players. Check and bet online! Would you like to bet at sites not using GamStop? Look at a list of NonStopCasino sites for online betting that aren't on GamStop. 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