| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1.67 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2.67 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 4.34 nT Bz: -1.49 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 07 Sep 23 There are no significant equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The northern season for NLCs began on May 26th. The first clouds were detected inside the Arctic Circle 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: Updated: Aug. 29, 2023 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. What happened to NASA's AIM spacecraft, which has been monitoring NLCs since 2007? Earlier this year, the spacecraft's battery failed. As a result AIM is offline, perhaps permanently. There may be some hope of a recovery as AIM's orbit precesses into full sunlight in 2024. Until then, we will maintain AIM's iconic "daily daisy," frozen at Feb. 28, 2023, as a show of thanks for years of service and hope for future daisies: | | | Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Sep07 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Sep 07 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 25 % | 25 % | CLASS X | 05 % | 05 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2023 Sep 07 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 25 % | 30 % | MINOR | 10 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 40 % | | | | | | | | | | | | 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. | | | THOSE SUNSPOTS ARE GETTING BIGGER: A line of sunspots is marching across the sun's northern hemisphere, and some of them are growing rapidly: movie. NOAA forecasters say there is a 25% chance of M-class solar flares and a 5% chance of X-flares on Sept. 7th. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text THE STORM-BATTERED TAIL OF COMET NISHIMURA: At least two CMEs have hit Comet Nishimura (C/2023 P1) in the past few days. The solar storms are having a destructive effect on the comet's tail. Eliot Herman photographed the damage from Tucson, Arizona: "This image is a highly stretched gray and inverted version of a photo I captured on Sept. 6th," says Herman. "It shows the impact of solar activity on the tail of the comet." The breaks Herman observed are the result of multiple CME impacts. Each one causes magnetic reconnection inside the comet's tail--a phenomenon researchers call a "disconnection event." They are literally ripping the comet's tail apart. Comet Nishimura is plunging toward the sun for a close encounter inside the orbit of Mercury on Sept. 17th. At such close range it cannot avoid solar storms. Amateur astronomers who photograph Comet Nishimura in the days ahead are likely to capture more of these events. The comet is currently shining like a 5th magnitude star, which makes it an easy target for mid-sized backyard telescopes. Submit your pictures here. Resources: observing tips, sky map, light curve. Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter 18K GOLD "ALWAYS AND FOREVER" PENDANT: Are you looking for an unforgettable gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. On Aug. 29, 2023, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon: You can have it for $199.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this 18K gold-plated sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped ruby crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking premium pendant that makes a once-in-a-lifetime anniversary or birthday gift. 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 Space Weather 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 Sep 06, 2023, 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 September 7, 2023 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2023 QU | 2023-Sep-02 | 13.6 LD | 9.8 | 34 | 2017 BY32 | 2023-Sep-02 | 16.4 LD | 3.5 | 19 | 2023 RD | 2023-Sep-02 | 1.1 LD | 18.3 | 15 | 2023 QG | 2023-Sep-03 | 11.6 LD | 13.7 | 75 | 2023 QH1 | 2023-Sep-03 | 13.1 LD | 6.4 | 23 | 2021 JA5 | 2023-Sep-06 | 13.3 LD | 10.9 | 19 | 2023 QC5 | 2023-Sep-08 | 10.6 LD | 7.6 | 26 | 2020 GE | 2023-Sep-08 | 14.9 LD | 1.4 | 8 | 2023 RH | 2023-Sep-08 | 4.3 LD | 19.1 | 28 | 2023 RG | 2023-Sep-08 | 4.3 LD | 12.5 | 12 | 2023 RM | 2023-Sep-09 | 8.6 LD | 6 | 12 | 2023 RL | 2023-Sep-09 | 2 LD | 5.4 | 8 | 2023 RJ | 2023-Sep-10 | 14.2 LD | 20.2 | 45 | 2023 QE8 | 2023-Sep-10 | 4 LD | 14.5 | 56 | 2023 QF6 | 2023-Sep-10 | 7 LD | 10.5 | 22 | 2023 RK | 2023-Sep-11 | 16 LD | 9.4 | 24 | 2020 RT2 | 2023-Sep-12 | 11 LD | 10 | 8 | 2016 LY48 | 2023-Sep-16 | 5 LD | 10.8 | 99 | 2010 TE | 2023-Sep-16 | 6.8 LD | 6 | 22 | 523598 | 2023-Sep-20 | 19.8 LD | 25 | 239 | 2019 SF6 | 2023-Sep-26 | 16.7 LD | 8.6 | 20 | 2013 TG6 | 2023-Sep-28 | 3.6 LD | 4.1 | 17 | 2009 UG | 2023-Sep-30 | 6.1 LD | 9 | 78 | 349507 | 2023-Oct-03 | 16.5 LD | 21 | 696 | 2022 FX1 | 2023-Oct-04 | 20 LD | 9.9 | 25 | 2023 QC8 | 2023-Oct-05 | 15.8 LD | 6.3 | 41 | 2022 TD | 2023-Oct-07 | 8.9 LD | 9.4 | 10 | 2018 ER1 | 2023-Oct-08 | 12.5 LD | 5.3 | 27 | 2022 UX1 | 2023-Oct-11 | 3.1 LD | 8.6 | 9 | 2015 KW120 | 2023-Oct-12 | 18.2 LD | 13 | 22 | 2021 NT14 | 2023-Oct-13 | 18.6 LD | 8.6 | 254 | 2011 GA | 2023-Oct-15 | 6.8 LD | 16.6 | 230 | 2007 SQ6 | 2023-Oct-15 | 19.4 LD | 6.5 | 130 | 2019 UZ3 | 2023-Oct-16 | 9.6 LD | 8.3 | 14 | 1998 HH49 | 2023-Oct-17 | 3.1 LD | 14.8 | 193 | 2022 UO10 | 2023-Oct-19 | 7.8 LD | 9.8 | 16 | 2020 UR | 2023-Oct-20 | 5.8 LD | 12.9 | 9 | 2020 FM6 | 2023-Oct-23 | 15.5 LD | 15.9 | 149 | 2019 HH4 | 2023-Oct-24 | 13.3 LD | 20 | 365 | 2021 SZ4 | 2023-Oct-26 | 14 LD | 30 | 287 | 302169 | 2023-Oct-26 | 12.7 LD | 25.7 | 374 | 525229 | 2023-Oct-30 | 10.6 LD | 17.4 | 200 | 2013 UV3 | 2023-Nov-01 | 14.7 LD | 15.4 | 16 | 2016 WY | 2023-Nov-02 | 9.1 LD | 3.9 | 5 | 363505 | 2023-Nov-02 | 13.7 LD | 8 | 709 | 2022 JF | 2023-Nov-03 | 15.2 LD | 17.2 | 39 | 2023 QP8 | 2023-Nov-03 | 17.1 LD | 8.8 | 170 | 2016 VW2 | 2023-Nov-03 | 10.1 LD | 8.1 | 20 | 2019 UH7 | 2023-Nov-04 | 9.9 LD | 5.9 | 11 | 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 | | 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 | | When looking for casinos to play online when the weather is bad, you can try casino online trucchi for Italian games. If you are not from Finland you can try the Swedish page Svenska casino online to find suitable games, check out svenskacasinoonline.net. 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