 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 4.67 unsettled
24-hr max: Kp= 4.67 unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.05 nT
Bz: 1.63 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 18 Aug 25 
Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on Aug. 19th. Credit: NASA/SDO | more data  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 Aug 12, 2025, the Arctic stratosphere is much too hot for polar stratospheric clouds. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for noctilucent clouds is underway. First reports of the electric-blue clouds came from Russia on May 28, 2025. Since then, the clouds have spread to lower latitudes, reaching Paris, France, during a major outbreak on June 23, 2025.
Above: Aug. 11, 2025, Rusko, Finland
"A nice display of late summer NLCs,"says photographer Mikko Peussa.
See the complete NLC Photo Gallery
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2025 Aug 19 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 10 % | 10 % | 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: 2025 Aug 19 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 35 % | 30 % | MINOR | 30 % | 15 % | SEVERE | 10 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 05 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 70 % | 40 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is spreading across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | | MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORMS UNDERWAY: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are underway on Aug. 19th as Earth enters a fast-moving stream of solar wind. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after local nightfall. Aurora alerts: SMS Text A PLASMA TORNADO ON THE SUN: This week, astronomers around the world have been monitoring a twister unraveling above the sun's surface. It isn’t a storm of wind and rain, but a plasma tornado--a column of hot gas spiraling thousands of kilometers high: 
David Wilson captured this video on Aug. 17th from his backyard observatory in Inverness, Scotland. "I inserted an image of the Earth-moon system for scale," he says. "This tornado is big enough to swallow our entire planet!" Unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are caused by pressure differences in the atmosphere, tornadoes on the sun are sculpted by magnetic fields, which grab clouds of plasma and whip them around. Wind speeds in this monster are topping 100,000 mph. If we rated it on the Fujita scale, it would be a F300. For comparison, the deadliest tornadoes on Earth are a "mere" F5. The plasma is still spinning today. If you have a solar telescope, take a look! more images: from Maximilian-Vlad Teodorescu of the Institute of Space Science in Magurele, Romania; from Franco Mere of Milano, Italy; from Frank J Melillo of Holtsville, NY Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter AMBER DRAGONFLY SPACE PENDANT: This dragonfly has touched space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon, 109,228 feet above California's Sierra Nevada: 
You can have it for $179.95. Made of genuine Baltic Amber with a sterling silver exoskeleton, the pendant measures 1 1/4 inch and comes with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain. The wings of the dragonfly include four pieces of natural amber colored Cognac, Olive Green and Honey Yellow. The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip 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
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud 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 18, 2025, the network reported 13 fireballs.
(8 sporadics, 5 Perseids)  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 19, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2025 PX1 | 2025-Aug-14 | 8.8 LD | 5.8 | 16 | | 2025 PF2 | 2025-Aug-15 | 0.1 LD | 13.1 | 3 | | 2021 PJ1 | 2025-Aug-15 | 4.3 LD | 9.3 | 24 | | 2025 PT1 | 2025-Aug-15 | 4.8 LD | 12.5 | 18 | | 2025 PW1 | 2025-Aug-15 | 0.7 LD | 8.5 | 10 | | 2025 QA | 2025-Aug-16 | 5.9 LD | 7.4 | 17 | | 2025 QQ | 2025-Aug-16 | 2.7 LD | 11.1 | 19 | | 2025 QO | 2025-Aug-16 | 3.1 LD | 7.1 | 8 | | 2025 QU | 2025-Aug-16 | 4.5 LD | 9.8 | 12 | | 2025 CO3 | 2025-Aug-16 | 19.8 LD | 8.4 | 90 | | 2025 PR1 | 2025-Aug-16 | 2.6 LD | 7.9 | 13 | | 2025 QR | 2025-Aug-17 | 7 LD | 12.2 | 25 | | 2025 PH3 | 2025-Aug-17 | 14.1 LD | 7.2 | 30 | | 2025 PM | 2025-Aug-17 | 2.7 LD | 13.5 | 54 | | 2025 PL2 | 2025-Aug-18 | 4.5 LD | 25.2 | 21 | | 2025 PB2 | 2025-Aug-18 | 5.6 LD | 17.3 | 32 | | 2025 QC | 2025-Aug-18 | 14.6 LD | 7.6 | 19 | | 2025 PY1 | 2025-Aug-18 | 0.8 LD | 6.8 | 10 | | 2025 PM1 | 2025-Aug-20 | 9.7 LD | 4.9 | 24 | | 2025 OV4 | 2025-Aug-20 | 7.6 LD | 10.8 | 52 | | 1997 QK1 | 2025-Aug-20 | 7.9 LD | 9.8 | 315 | | 2025 PW2 | 2025-Aug-20 | 3.9 LD | 11.4 | 13 | | 2025 OB3 | 2025-Aug-21 | 8.8 LD | 7 | 50 | | 2022 QD3 | 2025-Aug-21 | 15 LD | 6.9 | 35 | | 2025 PN2 | 2025-Aug-21 | 9.9 LD | 16.6 | 32 | | 2023 PX | 2025-Aug-22 | 2.4 LD | 8.3 | 23 | | 2025 PR | 2025-Aug-23 | 17.6 LD | 3.4 | 24 | | 2019 QQ6 | 2025-Aug-24 | 9.4 LD | 17.2 | 31 | | 2025 PM2 | 2025-Aug-27 | 9.7 LD | 18.5 | 64 | | 2025 PX | 2025-Aug-29 | 16.5 LD | 7 | 52 | | 2017 RK15 | 2025-Aug-29 | 15.8 LD | 13.2 | 26 | | 2020 TS1 | 2025-Aug-29 | 17.8 LD | 3.3 | 5 | | 1998 SH2 | 2025-Aug-30 | 8.1 LD | 17.3 | 246 | | 2025 PF3 | 2025-Sep-03 | 16.4 LD | 6.9 | 21 | | 2025 OG1 | 2025-Sep-05 | 14.5 LD | 4.2 | 35 | | 2019 JG1 | 2025-Sep-09 | 18.8 LD | 7.9 | 17 | | 2009 FF | 2025-Sep-11 | 6.8 LD | 12.9 | 155 | | 2015 SA | 2025-Sep-13 | 10.3 LD | 9.1 | 31 | | 2022 SS2 | 2025-Sep-13 | 2.4 LD | 7.2 | 13 | | 2025 FA22 | 2025-Sep-18 | 2.2 LD | 10.8 | 166 | | 2025 PJ1 | 2025-Sep-21 | 11.8 LD | 11.9 | 134 | | 2022 SW12 | 2025-Sep-23 | 15 LD | 17.6 | 210 | | 2021 RN16 | 2025-Sep-23 | 10.1 LD | 8.8 | 7 | | 2018 QT1 | 2025-Sep-23 | 13 LD | 12.7 | 138 | | 2019 SF6 | 2025-Sep-28 | 20 LD | 8.4 | 20 | | 152664 | 2025-Sep-29 | 10.1 LD | 18.6 | 412 | | 2020 GE1 | 2025-Oct-02 | 13.7 LD | 4.7 | 14 | | 2022 TU1 | 2025-Oct-08 | 16.9 LD | 12.9 | 10 | | 2020 QU5 | 2025-Oct-09 | 7.1 LD | 13.6 | 26 | | 2022 AY5 | 2025-Oct-14 | 7.4 LD | 8.4 | 5 | | 2022 UY3 | 2025-Oct-15 | 10.2 LD | 7.4 | 15 | 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 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is sharply decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-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. | | 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. | |
