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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 327.9 km/sec
density: 6.17 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1146 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C3
2123 UT Apr15
24-hr: C7
0914 UT Apr15
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT
Daily Sun: 15 Apr 23
Expand: labels | no labels
Sunspot AR3280 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 153
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 15 Apr 2023

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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 15 Apr 2023


Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 21.04x1010 W Warm
Max: 49.4
x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05
x1010 W Cold (02/2009)
explanation | more data: gfx, txt
Updated 15 Apr 2023

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 171 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 15 Apr 2023

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: -0.3% Below average
48-hr change: -1.3%
Max: +11.7% Very High
(12/2009)
Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991)
explanation | more data
Updated 15 Apr 2023 @ 1700 UT

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1.33 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2.67
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.20 nT
Bz: -1.95 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1146 UT
Coronal Holes: 15 Apr 23

There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun.
Credit: SDO/AIA

Noctilucent Clouds
Bad news: NASA's AIM spacecraft, which monitors noctilucent clouds, may be dead due to problems with an onboard battery. Mission controllers have not yet given up all hope, so stay tuned.
Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated Apr15
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2023 Apr 15 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
50 %
50 %
CLASS X
10 %
10 %
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 Apr 15 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
25 %
20 %
MINOR
10 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
35 %
30 %
 
Saturday, Apr. 15, 2023
What's up in space
       
 

Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora tour guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too!

 

CHANCE OF FLARES TODAY: NOAA forecasters say there is a 40% chance of M-class solar flares today. The most likely source is fast-growing sunspot AR3280, which has an unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic field and is almost directly facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.

THE SODIUM TAIL OF MERCURY: Astronomy used to be so simple. Comets had tails, and planets did not. Mercury is making things complicated. When Dr. Sebastian Voltmer of Spicheren, France, photographed the planet this week, it exhibited a magnificent plume of gas flowing behind it:

"Mercury is NOT a comet, but it sure looks like one," says Voltmer. "Solar wind and micro-meteorites hitting the planet eject sodium atoms from Mercury's surface. This creates a yellow-orange tail of sodium gas that is around 24 million kilometers long."

First predicted in the 1980s, Mercury's tail was discovered in 2001. The gaseous plume is made of many elements from Mercury's rocky surface, not only sodium. Sodium, however, dominates the scattering of sunlight and gives the tail its striking yellow hue.

People watching Mercury climb up the evening sky this month may be wondering "why didn’t I see a tail?" Answer: A special filter is required. "I used a 589 nanometer filter tuned to the yellow glow of sodium," says Voltmer. "Without such a filter, Mercury's tail is almost invisible to the naked eye."

Mercury's tail waxes and wanes in brightness as it orbits the sun. The predictable pattern is shown in this movie from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which spent years observing Mercury’s tail from close range:


For reasons having to do with the Doppler shift of sodium absorption lines in the solar spectrum, Mercury's tail is most luminous when the planet is ±16 days from perihelion (closest approach to the sun).

This means the tail's maximum luminosity is only a few days away. Mercury will be 16 days past perihelion on Monday, April 17th, located in the sunset sky almost directly below Venus. If you have a sodium filter, take a look!

more images: from Nicolae-Adrian Corlaci of Bucharest, Romania; from Paul Robinson near Memphis, TN

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter

STORM TROOPER WHISKEY GLASS: If you like your drink cold--really cold--this glass is for you. It has flown to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon. At the apex of the flight (117,109 ft), the temperature was a frosty -63C:

You can have it for $99.95. This double-walled whiskey glass is cast from one of the original molds for Storm Trooper helmets used in Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Made of high quality borosilicate, the glass is thin, hard and lead-free.  It makes a great Christmas gift for Star Wars fans.

The glass comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight, and telling the story of its 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 15 2023, 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 15, 2023 there were 2327 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2023 FG5
2023-Apr-10
9.5 LD
9.4
25
2023 FT1
2023-Apr-10
19.5 LD
6.6
34
2023 GG
2023-Apr-11
4 LD
10.6
74
2023 GE1
2023-Apr-11
4.6 LD
14.1
29
2023 GQ
2023-Apr-11
0.3 LD
20.6
7
2023 GB1
2023-Apr-11
9.9 LD
5.8
15
2023 FE5
2023-Apr-11
11.6 LD
5.8
28
2023 GW
2023-Apr-12
15.4 LD
13
44
2023 FS10
2023-Apr-12
3.2 LD
7.6
21
2019 GK21
2023-Apr-13
15.2 LD
8.1
27
2023 GR1
2023-Apr-13
6.2 LD
7.6
31
2022 YK9
2023-Apr-13
19.9 LD
9.9
175
436774
2023-Apr-13
12.5 LD
17.6
719
2023 GZ
2023-Apr-15
2 LD
8.6
11
2023 GC1
2023-Apr-15
15.4 LD
6.6
16
2023 FN13
2023-Apr-15
2.6 LD
4.5
12
2020 BV14
2023-Apr-16
17.8 LD
8.2
81
2020 FQ6
2023-Apr-16
13.1 LD
9.7
36
2023 GM1
2023-Apr-17
2.2 LD
6.4
12
2023 GU
2023-Apr-17
10.9 LD
11.2
31
2023 GM
2023-Apr-17
8.4 LD
20.1
111
2023 GO
2023-Apr-17
18.3 LD
6.7
29
2023 GS
2023-Apr-18
5.9 LD
8.5
22
2023 GQ1
2023-Apr-18
1.1 LD
2.6
3
2023 GR
2023-Apr-18
18.7 LD
9
62
2023 GO1
2023-Apr-25
10.9 LD
11.9
20
2006 HV5
2023-Apr-26
6.3 LD
17.4
400
2023 GG1
2023-Apr-26
12.6 LD
10
40
2021 JF2
2023-Apr-28
16.6 LD
8
19
2018 VS6
2023-May-01
5.2 LD
11.6
14
2011 KY15
2023-May-18
19.9 LD
14.3
54
2021 JK7
2023-May-22
16.7 LD
22.9
48
2019 UJ3
2023-May-23
15.5 LD
9.8
21
2023 CL3
2023-May-24
18.9 LD
7.3
121
2021 KO2
2023-May-29
15.8 LD
13.9
9
2012 KP24
2023-May-31
10.3 LD
12.4
19
2018 KR
2023-Jun-07
6.5 LD
4.9
19
2017 UJ2
2023-Jun-07
5.3 LD
5.6
2
488453
2023-Jun-12
8.3 LD
21.5
493
2022 WN4
2023-Jun-13
10.8 LD
15.1
158
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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