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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 413.4 km/sec
density: 6.9 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A1
2150 UT Apr04
24-hr: B4
0052 UT Apr04
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT
Daily Sun: 04 Apr 20
Sunspot AR2759 has a reversed magnetic polarity that identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 25. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 13
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 04 Apr 2020

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2020 total: 70 days (74%)
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 04 Apr 2020


Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 3.79
x1010 W Cold
Max: 49.4
x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05
x1010 W Cold (02/2009)
explanation | more data: gfx, txt
Updated 03 Apr 2020

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 70 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 04 Apr 2020

Cosmic Rays Solar minimum is underway. The sun's magnetic field is weak, allowing extra cosmic rays into the solar system. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth in 2019 are near a Space Age peak.

Oulu Neutron Counts

Percentages of the Space Age average:
today: +10.9% Very High
48-hr change: +0.2%
Max: +11.7% Very High
(12/2009)
Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991)
explanation | more data
Updated 04 Apr 2020 @ 0600 UT

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.6 nT
Bz: 0.2 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 04 Apr 20

Solar wind flowing from this minor coronal hole could reach Earth on April 4th or 5th.
Credit: SDO/AIA

Noctilucent Clouds The southern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds began on Nov. 15th--the earliest start in recorded history. Check here for daily images from NASA's AIM spacecraft.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 03-02-2020 17:55:02 UT
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2020 Apr 04 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: 2020 Apr 04 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
20 %
SEVERE
30 %
10 %
 
Saturday, Apr. 4, 2020
What's up in space
       
 

Marianne’s Arctic tours: Operating in small groups of 7 to 14 persons--all needs supplied for safety, comfort and pleasure. Night & day photography or non-photographic landscape - wildlife tours. Click for details!

 

A SUNSPOT FROM THE NEXT SOLAR CYCLE: Sunspot AR2759 is crossing the face of the sun this weekend. It's special because it belongs to the next solar cycle. The magnetic polarity of AR2759 marks it as a member of Solar Cycle 25. So far this year, 80% of all numbered sunspots have come from new Solar Cycle 25, and only 20% from old Solar Cycle 24--a sign that Solar Minimum won't last forever. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.

THE NITROGEN FRINGE: For weeks, aurora tour guide Rayann Elzein of Utsjoki, Finland has dreaded the end of aurora season. If this was it, it was a doozy. "I have almost no words to describe what I saw tonight!" he says. "There was a crazy, fast and bright aurora show, with many pink fringes, almost nonstop for 45 minutes."

This is a "nitrogen fringe." Most auroras are green--the color of oxygen atoms struck by energetic particles from space between 100 km and 300 km above Earth's surface. Pink appears when energetic particles descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below.  

"I hiked up a fell here in Utsjoki in the Finnish Lapland, and while standing on the summit, I felt as if I could almost touch the aurora. This was a very special moment for me. Wow, what a night, almost at the very end of our aurora season!"

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter

VENUS IN THE PLEAIDES: Last night, in a rare conjunction that happens only once every 8 years, Venus passed through the Pleiades star cluster. Steven Rosenow send sthis picture from Shelton, Washington:

"Venus danced wonderfully across the Pleiades open star cluster tonight," says Rosenow. "Clear skies this evening across the Puget Sound area afforded skywatchers and astronomers alike a great chance to witness this once-in-eight-year event." See more images from around the world in our realtime photo gallery:

Realtime Venus-Pleaides Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter

MR. SPOCK IN THE STRATOSPHERE: If you would like to support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program, there's a logical way to do it. Puchase this Mr. Spock collector's item. Here is the green-blooded science officer floating 32.2 km (112,200 ft) above Death Valley National Park in central California:

You can have him for $170.10. The price, in case you're wondering, is the serial number of the Enterprise, NCC1701, divided by 10. The students are selling Spock to buy more helium! He comes with a greeting card showing the high-quality resin bobblehead in flight and telling the story of his 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

  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 Apr. 02, 2020, the network reported 12 fireballs.
(12 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 April 4, 2020 there were 2018 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2020 GO
2020-Mar-30
5.6 LD
8.7
8
2020 FB1
2020-Mar-30
19.1 LD
10.5
27
2020 GQ
2020-Mar-31
16.6 LD
4.4
18
2020 FB4
2020-Mar-31
12 LD
6.2
16
2020 FA1
2020-Mar-31
18.3 LD
2.2
19
2020 FG6
2020-Apr-02
5.4 LD
7.1
14
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
8.9 LD
4.2
14
2020 FK3
2020-Apr-03
10.4 LD
9.7
30
2020 GH
2020-Apr-03
0.3 LD
12.9
6
2020 GC
2020-Apr-04
4.7 LD
14
18
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2020 FL6
2020-Apr-04
5.1 LD
12.1
32
2020 GB
2020-Apr-04
6.2 LD
10.3
27
2020 GF
2020-Apr-05
7.6 LD
5.2
24
2020 GM
2020-Apr-05
2.3 LD
9.5
18
2020 DT3
2020-Apr-05
17.6 LD
11.8
203
2020 GN
2020-Apr-05
6 LD
8.2
12
2020 FQ6
2020-Apr-06
18 LD
11.3
35
2020 FL4
2020-Apr-09
10.4 LD
4.6
15
2015 GK
2020-Apr-09
12.2 LD
12.9
25
2020 FW4
2020-Apr-09
19.7 LD
18.6
160
2020 GE
2020-Apr-10
5.4 LD
2.1
8
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
2020 GG
2020-Apr-11
9.7 LD
5.5
17
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224
2020 FX3
2020-Apr-15
14.1 LD
10.3
56
2020 FZ6
2020-Apr-15
20 LD
21.7
190
2020 FV6
2020-Apr-19
10.7 LD
19.7
91
2019 HS2
2020-Apr-26
13.6 LD
12.6
17
2019 GF1
2020-Apr-27
18.7 LD
3.2
12
2020 FM6
2020-Apr-27
14.3 LD
16.9
152
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457
2020 DM4
2020-May-01
18.4 LD
6.4
162
438908
2020-May-07
8.9 LD
12.8
282
2016 HP6
2020-May-07
4.3 LD
5.7
31
388945
2020-May-10
7.3 LD
8.8
295
2000 KA
2020-May-12
8.9 LD
13.5
162
478784
2020-May-15
8.5 LD
3.6
28
136795
2020-May-21
16.1 LD
11.7
892
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

SOMETHING NEW! We have developed a new predictive model of aviation radiation. It's called E-RAD--short for Empirical RADiation model. We are constantly flying radiation sensors onboard airplanes over the US and and around the world, so far collecting more than 22,000 gps-tagged radiation measurements. Using this unique dataset, we can predict the dosage on any flight over the USA with an error no worse than 15%.

E-RAD lets us do something new: Every day we monitor approximately 1400 flights criss-crossing the 10 busiest routes in the continental USA. Typically, this includes more than 80,000 passengers per day. E-RAD calculates the radiation exposure for every single flight.

The Hot Flights Table is a daily summary of these calculations. It shows the 5 charter flights with the highest dose rates; the 5 commercial flights with the highest dose rates; 5 commercial flights with near-average dose rates; and the 5 commercial flights with the lowest dose rates. Passengers typically experience dose rates that are 20 to 70 times higher than natural radiation at sea level.

To measure radiation on airplanes, we use the same sensors we fly to the stratosphere onboard Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloons: neutron bubble chambers and X-ray/gamma-ray Geiger tubes sensitive to energies between 10 keV and 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.

Column definitions: (1) The flight number; (2) The maximum dose rate during the flight, expressed in units of natural radiation at sea level; (3) The maximum altitude of the plane in feet above sea level; (4) Departure city; (5) Arrival city; (6) Duration of the flight.

SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Approximately 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 radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 18% since 2015:

The data points in the graph above 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 Reneger and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.

En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes:

In this plot, dose rates are expessed 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 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.

Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.

  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.
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
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather

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