| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1.00 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 1.33 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 4.72 nT Bz: -0.75 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1145 UT Coronal Holes: 13 Jan 24 There are no significant 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 Jan. 13, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is 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: Updated: Jan 13, 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 Jan 13 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 30 % | 30 % | 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: 2024 Jan 13 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 | 30 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 25 % | 15 % | | | | | | | | | | | | 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. | | | GEOMAGNETIC UNREST POSSIBLE THIS WEEKEND: NOAA forecasters say that geomagnetric unrest is possible on Jan. 13th in response to one or more passing CMEs. These are near-miss CMEs, not direct hits. The ripple effect of the passing clouds is likely to disturb Earth's magnetic field without triggering full-fledged geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text COMET 12P VISITS THE CRESCENT NEBULA: Astronomers around the world have been waiting for a geyser to blow on cryovolcanic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. It's overdue. Last night, the comet quietly passed by the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888): Michael Jäger photographed the conjunction from his backyard observatory in Austria. The picture is a 10-minute exposure through 4 independent color filters: R, G, B and Hydrogen-alpha. The H-alpha filter captured the red glow of hydrogen in the nebula, while the G filter picked up green light from diatomic carbon in the comet's atmosphere--a beautiful contrast in hue. Comet 12P is drifting away from the nebula now. It's still worth monitoring, though. An icy geyser has been breaking through comet's crust every 15 days or so, and pressure is building for a new blast. Look for it in the constellation Cygnus. more images: from Georg Klingersberger of Kobernaußen Upper Austria; from Rok Palcic of Kamnik, Slovenia; from the Association Astronomique de l'Indre of Le Poinçonnet, Indre, Centre Val de Loire, France; Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SO MANY MAGNETIC FILAMENTS: Today there are a dozen sunspot groups crossing the face of the sun. This spectroheliograph image reveals an even greater number of magnetic filaments: Click to view the full-sized image Francois Rouviere captured the image from Cannes, France. It shows the sun in the monochromatic wavelength of red light emitted by solar hydrogen. Each irregular dark line is a magnetic tube filled with dense hydrogen gas. These filaments are just as likely to erupt as the sunspots, more than doubling the chances of a flare today. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter VALENTINE'S CRYSTAL BEAR AND ROSE: Valentine's Day is coming. Looking for a far-out gift? This Crystal Bear and Rose flew to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon on Dec. 17th: You can have it for $129.95. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space bears to support their high-altitude ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the ursine astronaut in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space 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 Comet 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 Jan 11, 2024, the network reported 8 fireballs. (8 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 January 13, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2024 AC3 | 2024-Jan-08 | 4.1 LD | 21.5 | 32 | 2024 AX3 | 2024-Jan-08 | 4.8 LD | 5.5 | 11 | 2024 AD2 | 2024-Jan-08 | 12.6 LD | 7.3 | 19 | 2002 AY1 | 2024-Jan-08 | 15.2 LD | 17.3 | 230 | 2023 XN13 | 2024-Jan-09 | 15.8 LD | 1.4 | 9 | 2024 AS1 | 2024-Jan-09 | 1.5 LD | 16.8 | 13 | 2023 XT14 | 2024-Jan-10 | 12.2 LD | 6.4 | 27 | 2024 AU1 | 2024-Jan-10 | 18.3 LD | 18.1 | 52 | 2024 AN1 | 2024-Jan-10 | 4 LD | 7.9 | 17 | 2023 YO1 | 2024-Jan-10 | 6.8 LD | 3.1 | 23 | 2024 AY2 | 2024-Jan-10 | 8.4 LD | 8.4 | 14 | 2020 AC1 | 2024-Jan-11 | 19.3 LD | 5.3 | 7 | 2023 WZ3 | 2024-Jan-11 | 16.2 LD | 4 | 35 | 2024 AR2 | 2024-Jan-12 | 3.3 LD | 19.2 | 19 | 2024 AW2 | 2024-Jan-13 | 10.9 LD | 6.7 | 18 | 2024 AR1 | 2024-Jan-13 | 10 LD | 4.5 | 22 | 2024 AF3 | 2024-Jan-14 | 8.8 LD | 6.7 | 15 | 2024 AG3 | 2024-Jan-14 | 4.4 LD | 9.8 | 10 | 2024 AZ3 | 2024-Jan-14 | 0.7 LD | 9.9 | 6 | 2024 AT2 | 2024-Jan-15 | 3.7 LD | 8.7 | 12 | 2015 AK1 | 2024-Jan-15 | 15.8 LD | 13.2 | 52 | 2024 AB3 | 2024-Jan-16 | 7.7 LD | 19.2 | 18 | 2021 CZ2 | 2024-Jan-16 | 8 LD | 14.3 | 113 | 2024 AP2 | 2024-Jan-19 | 4 LD | 5.9 | 43 | 2024 AE3 | 2024-Jan-19 | 11.1 LD | 7.5 | 52 | 2021 BL3 | 2024-Jan-23 | 17.2 LD | 23.4 | 41 | 2017 BG92 | 2024-Jan-25 | 11.8 LD | 6.3 | 6 | 2011 CQ1 | 2024-Jan-26 | 11.3 LD | 4.6 | 1 | 2024 AT1 | 2024-Jan-30 | 19.9 LD | 21.3 | 138 | 2007 EG | 2024-Jan-30 | 16 LD | 8.6 | 43 | 2008 OS7 | 2024-Feb-02 | 7.5 LD | 18.2 | 285 | 2019 CC5 | 2024-Feb-04 | 19.2 LD | 15 | 139 | 2023 SP1 | 2024-Feb-07 | 14.3 LD | 11.8 | 256 | 2020 DK | 2024-Feb-12 | 8.9 LD | 9.9 | 22 | 2024 AO | 2024-Feb-16 | 9.3 LD | 7.3 | 53 | 2019 DA1 | 2024-Mar-03 | 14.6 LD | 13.4 | 22 | 2015 FM34 | 2024-Mar-12 | 19.4 LD | 11.1 | 113 | 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 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. 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