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EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE: Unstable sunspot AR3335 (described below) exploded today, producing an M2.5-class solar flare (movie) and a minor shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean (map). The explosion lasted long enough to lift a CME out of the sun's atmosphere. Confirmation awaits fresh images from SOHO coronagraphs, so stay tuned. CME alerts: SMS Text
UNSTABLE SUNSPOT: What are the odds of looking at the sun and catching a sunspot in mid-flare? Actually, the odds are pretty good when the sunspot is AR3335. The active region has an unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that has it teetering on the edge of an eruption.
Yesterday, amateur astronomer Richard Schrantz of Nicholasville, Kentucky, experienced the phenomenon firsthand:
"I was able to see a flare rapidly develop from nothing to maximum in about 45 seconds," says Schrantz. "It was just a C4 but I thought it looked even bigger."
Indeed, bigger flares may be in the offing. The sunspot poses a threat for strong M-class eruptions. NOAA forecasters say there is a 30% chance of M-class flares on June 18th. Any flares from this sunspot will be geoeffective as it is almost directly facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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100 LIGHTNING BOLTS: When you see lightning, run! That’s what NOAA advises in lightning safety brochures. Photographer Uğur İkizler did not heed this warning on June 16th when a massive thunderhead rolled over Mudanya, Turkiye. Standing his ground, he captured an epic display:
"This merged view shows all of the lightning that occured during a 50 minute period just before local midnight," says İkizler.
There were more than 100 bolts -- cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-water -- strafing the shore and surrounding waters with surges of electricity measuring more than 30 thousand amps. Each bolt carved a scorching-hot path through the atmosphere, heating the air to 30,000 degrees Celsius, about 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Is it too late to run? Learn more about lightning from the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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APOLLO 11 PROOF SILVER DOLLAR: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider this: On July 20, 2019 (the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing), the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this rare proof silver dollar to the stratosphere:
The US Mint created Apollo 11 coins to celebrate the first Moon landing--but you can no longer buy them from the Mint. You can, however, get one from Earth to Sky Calculus. The students are selling the collector's item for $259.95 to support their cosmic ray ballooning program.
The silver dollar is curved and reproduces the helmet of astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Reflected in Buzz's visor are Neil Armstrong, the United States flag, and the lunar lander. The opposite side of the coin shows Neil's iconic footprint on the Moon. Included is a greeting card showing the coin in flight and a certificate of authenticity.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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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 17, 2023, the network reported 7 fireballs.
(7 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 18, 2023 there were 2335 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 LP1 | 2023-Jun-13 | 0.7 LD | 13.4 | 4 |
| 2023 LJ1 | 2023-Jun-13 | 8.8 LD | 12.2 | 25 |
| 2022 WN4 | 2023-Jun-13 | 10.8 LD | 15.1 | 158 |
| 2023 LO | 2023-Jun-13 | 4.6 LD | 5 | 11 |
| 2023 LZ | 2023-Jun-14 | 0.8 LD | 13.6 | 18 |
| 2020 DB5 | 2023-Jun-15 | 11.3 LD | 9.5 | 506 |
| 2023 LL1 | 2023-Jun-15 | 1.5 LD | 10.7 | 8 |
| 2023 LM1 | 2023-Jun-15 | 0.3 LD | 9.2 | 7 |
| 2023 MB | 2023-Jun-16 | 13.5 LD | 5.5 | 20 |
| 2023 LQ1 | 2023-Jun-16 | 2.7 LD | 8.4 | 14 |
| 2023 HL | 2023-Jun-17 | 13.5 LD | 1 | 15 |
| 2023 LV1 | 2023-Jun-17 | 14.7 LD | 16.5 | 189 |
| 2023 LE2 | 2023-Jun-17 | 0.4 LD | 6.8 | 3 |
| 2023 LV | 2023-Jun-18 | 11.9 LD | 8 | 34 |
| 2023 LW | 2023-Jun-18 | 6.1 LD | 16.6 | 33 |
| 2016 LK49 | 2023-Jun-19 | 17.4 LD | 19.4 | 22 |
| 2023 LT1 | 2023-Jun-20 | 1.8 LD | 10.3 | 16 |
| 2023 HF1 | 2023-Jun-21 | 12.5 LD | 4.4 | 59 |
| 467336 | 2023-Jun-24 | 17.4 LD | 7.1 | 269 |
| 2008 LG2 | 2023-Jun-24 | 10.5 LD | 5.6 | 32 |
| 2023 MD | 2023-Jun-25 | 7 LD | 4.1 | 27 |
| 2013 WV44 | 2023-Jun-28 | 9.1 LD | 11.8 | 95 |
| 2022 MM1 | 2023-Jun-29 | 9.8 LD | 9.7 | 41 |
| 2023 LG2 | 2023-Jul-01 | 5.7 LD | 2.8 | 26 |
| 2020 NC | 2023-Jul-02 | 13.9 LD | 7.7 | 123 |
| 2023 HO6 | 2023-Jul-05 | 5.3 LD | 7.8 | 232 |
| 2023 LH2 | 2023-Jul-06 | 18.8 LD | 7.9 | 35 |
| 2019 LH5 | 2023-Jul-07 | 14.9 LD | 21.6 | 281 |
| 2018 NW | 2023-Jul-10 | 18 LD | 21.8 | 10 |
| 2023 LN1 | 2023-Jul-10 | 17.9 LD | 5.8 | 63 |
| 2018 UY | 2023-Jul-12 | 7.4 LD | 16.4 | 243 |
| 2020 UQ3 | 2023-Jul-18 | 3.2 LD | 9.3 | 59 |
| 2022 GX2 | 2023-Jul-20 | 11.9 LD | 9.4 | 5 |
| 2020 OM | 2023-Jul-20 | 8.5 LD | 9.5 | 14 |
| 2015 MA54 | 2023-Jul-24 | 16.6 LD | 9.2 | 31 |
| 2018 BG5 | 2023-Jul-27 | 10.7 LD | 8.4 | 56 |
| 2020 PP1 | 2023-Jul-29 | 17 LD | 4.1 | 17 |
| 2021 BD3 | 2023-Jul-30 | 14 LD | 8.5 | 25 |
| 2016 AW65 | 2023-Jul-31 | 16.6 LD | 5.7 | 54 |
| 2020 PN1 | 2023-Aug-03 | 10.8 LD | 4.8 | 29 |
| 620082 | 2023-Aug-04 | 14 LD | 20.6 | 375 |
| 2004 KG1 | 2023-Aug-06 | 18.7 LD | 9.2 | 54 |
| 2022 BS2 | 2023-Aug-11 | 17.3 LD | 8.2 | 30 |
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 |
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