 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2.00 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2.33 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 13.35 nT
Bz: -0.11 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 03 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 May 31, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is much too warm for Type II polar stratospheric clouds. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for NLCs is over. The first clouds were detected inside the Antarctic Circle on Dec. 4, 2023, by the NOAA 21 satellite. The same satellite detected the last cloud on Feb. 21, 2024. Daily maps are now blank:
Updated: Feb 22, 2024
An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). Now that the southern season has ended, attention turns to the northern hemisphere. The first NLCs should appear inside the Arctic Circle in mid to late May.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2024 Jun 03 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 75 % | 75 % | CLASS X | 35 % | 35 % | 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 03 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 35 % | 35 % | MINOR | 25 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 05 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 60 % | 45 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | 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 CME HAS ARRIVED: A CME just hit Earth's magnetic field. The impact on June 3rd at 2300 UT did not immediately cause a geomagnetic storm. However, G1-class storms are possible in the hours ahead as Earth moves through the CME's magnetized wake. The CME was hurled in our direction on June 1st by a complex X1-M7 double solar flare. CME impact alerts: SMS Text
THE ANTI-TAIL OF COMET 12P: Comet tails are supposed to point away from the sun. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks just sprung a tail in the opposite direction--an anti-tail. It's the narrow spike pointing toward the sun in this picture taken June 1st by amateur astronomers Michael Jäger, Gerald Rhemann and Lukas Demetz: 
Anti-tails are an optical illusion. They appear when Earth passes through a comet's orbital plane, which, for Comet 12P, is happening this week. During the crossing, the sharp edge of the comet's fan-shaped dust tail appears to point toward the sun. "Earth crosses the comet's orbital plane on June 6th, so we will see this 'neck-line' structure for several more days," says Jäger. Comet 12P (magn. +7) is not visible to the naked eye, but it is an easy target for amateur telescopes. Southern hemisphere astronomers can find the comet in the constellation Lepus ~20 degrees below the celestial equator. The antitail should narrow in the days ahead, reaching maximum sharpness on June 6th. If you see it, submit your photos here. Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter YODA BEST DAD IN THE GALAXY: Father's Day is less than 2 weeks away. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider "Yoda Best Dad in the Galaxy." On May 29, 2024, the Star Wars keychain flew to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon: 
You can have it for $99.95. At the apex of the flight, Yoda was 101,354 ft above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California. The Jedi Master lingered in the stratosphere for more than an hour while radiation sensors gathered data for the students of Earth to Sky Calculus. The stainless steel keychain comes with a unique gift card showing it floating through the stratosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education THIS ERUPTION WILL PROBABLY MISS EARTH: Sunspot AR3691 erupted today (1411 UT), producing an M4.8-class solar flare and hurling a gorgeous plume of hot plasma into space: 
The debris from this explosion will probably miss Earth. The sunspot is too far off the sun-Earth line for an effective strike. Final confirmation, however, awaits fresh data from SOHO coronagraphs. CME impact alerts: SMS Text Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Comet 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 02, 2024, the network reported 5 fireballs.
(5 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 3, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2021 LV | 2024-May-29 | 12 LD | 15.5 | 9 | | 2024 JG | 2024-May-29 | 8.7 LD | 7.4 | 32 | | 2024 KR | 2024-May-29 | 16.2 LD | 17.1 | 157 | | 2024 KP | 2024-May-29 | 2.1 LD | 12.2 | 24 | | 2024 KQ | 2024-May-29 | 9.8 LD | 8.3 | 25 | | 2024 KU | 2024-May-29 | 1.6 LD | 9.4 | 8 | | 2024 JA3 | 2024-May-30 | 6.2 LD | 8.5 | 36 | | 2024 LB | 2024-May-30 | 7.8 LD | 5.2 | 12 | | 2024 KY | 2024-May-30 | 3.7 LD | 7.2 | 20 | | 2024 KX | 2024-May-31 | 0.8 LD | 8.3 | 11 | | 2008 XH | 2024-May-31 | 13.8 LD | 14.7 | 102 | | 2024 KB1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 1 LD | 11.1 | 8 | | 2024 JP1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 18.5 LD | 4.7 | 25 | | 2024 JC1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 15.1 LD | 4.8 | 34 | | 2024 KO1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 7.2 LD | 7 | 14 | | 1998 KY26 | 2024-Jun-01 | 12 LD | 5.3 | 25 | | 2016 JC6 | 2024-Jun-01 | 19.9 LD | 7.1 | 188 | | 2024 KZ | 2024-Jun-03 | 11.5 LD | 9.9 | 37 | | 2024 KT1 | 2024-Jun-03 | 4.8 LD | 7.2 | 14 | | 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 | 17 | | 2024 JR17 | 2024-Jun-05 | 19.3 LD | 14.5 | 86 | | 2008 YN2 | 2024-Jun-05 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 20 | | 2021 LW3 | 2024-Jun-06 | 9.7 LD | 9.8 | 86 | | 2024 KA1 | 2024-Jun-07 | 4.9 LD | 8.3 | 31 | | 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 | 447 | | 2024 LD | 2024-Jun-11 | 12 LD | 10.6 | 22 | | 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 | 29 | | 2024 KY1 | 2024-Jun-19 | 16.1 LD | 12.2 | 35 | | 2024 LJ | 2024-Jun-21 | 8.9 LD | 18.5 | 72 | | 2024 KN1 | 2024-Jun-23 | 14.7 LD | 4.6 | 28 | | 2024 KJ | 2024-Jun-25 | 13.7 LD | 4.5 | 24 | | 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 | 116 | | 2022 BY39 | 2024-Jul-02 | 13.2 LD | 3 | 4 | | 2024 LH | 2024-Jul-03 | 4.5 LD | 4.2 | 32 | | 2024 KQ1 | 2024-Jul-04 | 15.2 LD | 6.8 | 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 | 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! | | When looking for casinos to play online when the weather is bad, you can try the SkyCity Online Casino if you are located in New Zealand. If you are not from NZ you can try the Swedish page Svenska casino online to find suitable games, check out svenskacasinoonline.net. Always check your local laws before playing with real money.. | | 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. | |
