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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 316.3 km/sec
density: 9.84 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1114 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C6
2140 UT Feb03
24-hr: C7
0554 UT Feb03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT
Daily Sun: 03 Feb 24
Expand: labels | no labels | Carrington
New sunspot AR3575 may be a rare reversed-polarity sunspot. That means it is statistically more likely to produce strong solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 131
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 03 Feb 2024

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2024 total: 0 days (0%)
2023 total: 0 days (0%)
2022 total: 1 day (<1%)
2021 total: 64 days (18%)
2020 total: 208 days (57%)
2019 total: 281 days (77%)
2018 total: 221 days (61%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)
2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
2008 total: 268 days (73%)
2007 total: 152 days (42%)
2006 total: 70 days (19%)

Updated 03 Feb 2024


Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 17.86x1010 W Warm
Max: 49.4
x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05
x1010 W Cold (02/2009)
explanation | more data: gfx, txt
Updated 02 Feb 2024

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 143 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 03 Feb 2024

Cosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining--a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays.

Oulu Neutron Counts

Percentages of the Space Age average:
today: -2.4% Low
48-hr change: +0.1%
Max: +11.7% Very High
(12/2009)
Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991)
explanation | more data
Updated 03 Feb 2024 @ 0700 UT

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0.67 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1.33
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.03 nT
Bz: -2.08 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1114 UT
Coronal Holes: 03 Feb 24

A minor stream of solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole should reach Earth on Feb. 5-6.
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 Feb. 03, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is only 2 degrees too warm for Type II polar stratospheric clouds. | more data.

Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for NLCs is underway. The first clouds were detected inside the Antarctic Circle on Dec. 4th by the NOAA 21 satellite. An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). For the rest of the season, daily maps from NOAA 21 will be presented here:

noctilucent clouds
Updated: Feb 01, 2024

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 Feb 03 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
60 %
60 %
CLASS X
15 %
15 %
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 Feb 03 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
40 %
MINOR
15 %
25 %
SEVERE
01 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
50 %
60 %
 
Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024
What's up in space
       
 

This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by ChatGPT and other 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.

 

A CME MIGHT GRAZE EARTH THIS WEEKEND: Yesterday, Feb. 1st, a filament of magnetism in the sun's northern hemisphere erupted, hurling a CME into space. Most of the CME will sail north of our planet, but not all. A NASA model predicts a glancing blow on Sunday, Feb. 4th. The impact could spark a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm with auroras at high latitude. CME impact alerts: SMS Text

WILL MEGACONSTELLATIONS ALTER EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD? Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the Space Age. Much of this activity is driven by SpaceX and its growing megaconstellation of Starlink internet satellites.

Environmentalists have raised many concerns about Starlink including light-pollution of the night sky, a potentially hazardous traffic jam in low-Earth orbit, and even ozone depletion. Copycat megaconstellations by other companies and countries will only multiply these concerns.

Now there's a new reason to worry. According to a new study by Sierra Solter, megaconstellations could alter and weaken Earth's magnetic field.

Solter is a graduate student at the University of Iceland, working on her PhD in plasma physics. She recently realized something overlooked by many senior colleagues: "More than 500,000 satellites are expected in decades ahead, primarily to build internet megaconstellations. Every satellite that goes up will eventually come down, disintegrating in Earth's atmosphere. This will create a massive layer of conducting, electrically charged particles around our planet."

To understand the scale of the problem, consider the following: If you gathered up every charged particle in Earth's Van Allen Belts, their combined mass would be only 0.00018 kg. Other components of the magnetosphere such as the ring current and plasmasphere are even less massive. For comparison, "the mass of a second generation Starlink satellite is 1250 kilograms, all of which will become conductive debris when the satellite is eventually de-orbited," says Solter.

Metal debris from a single deorbited Starlink satellite is 7 million times more massive than the Van Allen Belts. An entire megaconstellation is billions of times more massive. These ratios point to a big problem.

"The space industry is adding enormous amounts of material to the magnetosphere in comparison to natural levels of particulate matter," says Solter. "Due to the conductive nature of the satellite debris, this may perturb or change things."

There is already evidence of this process in action. A 2023 study by researchers using a high-altitude NASA aircraft found that 10% of aerosols in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals from disintegrating satellites and rocket stages. These particles are drifting down from "the ablation zone" 70 to 80 km above Earth's surface where meteors and satellites burn up.

Solter decided to look for changes in the electrical properties of the ablation zone--and she found something. A NASA model of the upper atmosphere shows a sharp increase in the "Debye Length" just where satellites break apart when they deorbit:

"Debye Length" is a number that tells researchers how far an unbalanced electrical charge can be felt in conducting plasmas. The fact that it changes abruptly in the same place satellites disintegrate may be significant.

Extrapolating into the future, Solter worries that satellite debris could weaken Earth's magnetic field--the same magnetic field that protects us from cosmic rays and solar storms.

"It's a textbook undergraduate physics problem," she explains. "Suppose you put a conductive shell (satellite debris) around a spherical magnet (Earth). Outside the shell, the magnetic field goes to zero due to shielding effects. This is a highly simplified comparison, of course, but we might actually be doing this to our planet."  

Solter's preliminary study appears to show that the space industry is indeed perturbing the environment.  "It is very concerning," she concludes. "We absolutely cannot dump endless amounts of conductive dust into the magnetosphere and not expect some kind of impact. Multidisciplinary studies of this pollution are urgently needed."

For more information, you can read Solter's original research here.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free:
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VALENTINE'S GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Does your sweetheart love space? Shop the Earth to Sky Store for their perfect Valentine's gift. All items have flown to the stratosphere on board cosmic ray research balloons--and from now until Feb. 14th, everything is 10% off:

Each purchase comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. Don't forget to enter the coupon code "ILOVESPACE" for your Valentine's discount!

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter

  All Sky Fireball Network
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 Feb 03, 2024, the network reported 11 fireballs.
(11 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]

  Near Earth Asteroids
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 February 3, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2024 BC6
2024-Jan-29
2.1 LD
12.1
9
2024 AT1
2024-Jan-30
20 LD
21.4
150
2024 BA3
2024-Jan-30
1.6 LD
5.8
6
2007 EG
2024-Jan-30
16 LD
8.6
43
2024 BR3
2024-Jan-31
11.4 LD
11.3
33
2003 BM4
2024-Feb-01
8.7 LD
10.9
37
2024 BY
2024-Feb-01
6.6 LD
5.4
20
2024 BO3
2024-Feb-02
13.5 LD
12.1
16
2024 BJ3
2024-Feb-02
2.2 LD
17.7
22
2008 OS7
2024-Feb-02
7.5 LD
18.2
285
2024 BP1
2024-Feb-02
8.9 LD
7.2
40
2024 BA4
2024-Feb-03
9.2 LD
13
16
2024 BN3
2024-Feb-03
7.5 LD
7.3
12
2019 CC5
2024-Feb-04
19.2 LD
15
139
2024 CB
2024-Feb-04
9.5 LD
8.4
21
2024 BL3
2024-Feb-05
19.9 LD
15.5
47
2024 BS4
2024-Feb-05
10.8 LD
9.5
26
2024 BE5
2024-Feb-05
17.4 LD
9.6
27
2024 BT3
2024-Feb-06
14.1 LD
5
15
2024 BO
2024-Feb-06
19.8 LD
6.1
33
2023 SP1
2024-Feb-07
14.3 LD
11.8
256
2024 BW4
2024-Feb-07
11.6 LD
22.1
62
2024 BH
2024-Feb-10
18.4 LD
8.1
70
2020 DK
2024-Feb-12
8.9 LD
9.9
22
2024 BR4
2024-Feb-14
12 LD
12.4
177
2024 AO
2024-Feb-16
9.3 LD
7.3
52
2019 DA1
2024-Mar-03
14.6 LD
13.4
22
2015 FM34
2024-Mar-12
19.4 LD
11.1
113
2020 FU
2024-Mar-15
14.9 LD
15.5
19
2020 FD
2024-Mar-18
4.5 LD
15.1
10
2019 CJ
2024-Mar-24
12.4 LD
4.4
30
2021 CF6
2024-Mar-25
14.5 LD
8.3
63
2023 RO49
2024-Mar-29
14.1 LD
4.3
45
2015 MB54
2024-Mar-30
11.7 LD
3.8
55
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.

  Essential web links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
SolarMonitor.org
  information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary
Starlink Satellite Statistics
  current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page
The Aerospace Corporation
  Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
NOAA 27-Day Space Weather Forecasts
  fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong.
Aurora 30 min forecast
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Live Aurora Webcam
  from Lights over Lapland
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather

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