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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 367.2 km/sec
density: 12.6 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A3
2007 UT Apr23
24-hr: A7
1713 UT Apr23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT
Daily Sun: 23 Apr 20
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 23 Apr 2020

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 18 days
2020 total: 88 days (77%)
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 23 Apr 2020


Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 3.46
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 23 Apr 2020

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 71 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 23 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 2020 are near a Space Age peak.

Oulu Neutron Counts

Percentages of the Space Age average:
today: +10.3% Very High
48-hr change: +0.4%
Max: +11.7% Very High
(12/2009)
Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991)
explanation | more data
Updated 23 Apr 2020 @ 1700 UT

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.4 nT
Bz: -1.2 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 22 Apr 20

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

Noctilucent Clouds The northern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds is coming soon--probably starting in mid- to late-May. 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 23 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 23 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
10 %
10 %
 
Thursday, Apr. 23, 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!

 

SOLAR MINIMUM CONDITIONS ARE IN EFFECT: The sun has been blank (without sunspots) for 18 consecutive days. This is a sign that Solar Minimum is underway. The sun is passing through the nadir of the 11-year solar cycle, a slow process that could continue for much of 2020. Stay tuned for quiet. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.

SPRITE SEASON HAS BEGUN: A series of unusually severe spring storms parading across the southeastern USA has residents taking shelter from golf-ball sized hail and dangerous tornadoes. High above the maelstrom, sprites are dancing. Paul M. Smith of Edmond, Oklahoma, captured these specimens on April 22nd.

"There were tornado warnings and very large hail throughout the night," says Smith. "I photographed the sprites through a clearing around midnight."

Sprites are a form of electricity in powerful storm clouds. While regular lightning lances down, sprites leap up. They can reach all the way to the edge of space 90 km or more above Earth's surface. Spring thunderstorms often produce the year's first big sprites, and the sightings continue through late summer.

"My camera was pointed toward Oklahoma City," says Smith, "and the sprites were about 150 miles away." This radar weather map shows shows the observing geometry:

When observing sprites, this kind of distance is a good thing. It allows a camera to see over the top of the thunderhead into the sprite zone. It also provides a measure of safety, separating the photographer from lightning strikes.

Smith also photographed sprites on Easter Sunday. They towered over a storm in Arkansas that made headlines for its ferocity and destructiveness. "The sprites were so bright, I was able to photograph them in almost-full moonlight," he says.

This could turn into one of the best sprite seasons on record. Why? Solar Minimum. The sun is currently experiencing one of the deepest minima in 100 years. As the sun's magnetic field weakens, more cosmic rays from deep space are reaching Earth. Some researchers believe that cosmic rays help sprites get started by creating conductive paths in the atmosphere. Intensifying cosmic rays could produce an unusually spriteful spring.

Are you ready?

Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter

STERLING SILVER SPACE PENDANT: Mother's Day is only weeks away. Are you looking for a far-out gift? This 925 sterling silver pendant has been to the edge of space, and you can have it for $139.95.

The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling Mother's Day pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. This one traveled 108,596 ft above the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains of central California on April 3, 2020.  Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the necklace in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education

 

AN EXPLODING LYRID METEOR: The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaked on April 22nd when Earth passed through a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). Worldwide observers counted as many as 20 meteors per hour. One of them exploded over Sedona, Arizona:


Robert Mueller photographed the explosion and kept his camera clicking while the smoky debris twisted in the wind 80 km above Earth. "The swirling gases were visible for nearly 20 minutes," Mueller says.

This smoky debris could reappear next month in the form of a noctilucent cloud (NLC). Noctilucent clouds form when summertime water vapor rises to the edge of space and crystallizes around specks of meteor smoke. The northern season for NLCs starts in mid-May. Stay tuned for electric blue.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter


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. 23, 2020, the network reported 36 fireballs.
(22 sporadics, 14 Lyrids)

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 23, 2020 there were 2018 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 GT2
2020-Apr-18
5.7 LD
13
33
2020 HY2
2020-Apr-18
7.2 LD
37.7
36
2020 HB1
2020-Apr-18
7.7 LD
7.5
14
2020 HF
2020-Apr-18
2.3 LD
7.9
33
2020 HS3
2020-Apr-18
2.4 LD
9.7
10
2020 GZ2
2020-Apr-19
2.1 LD
9.5
9
2020 HA
2020-Apr-19
10 LD
12
25
2020 FV6
2020-Apr-19
10.8 LD
19.8
90
2020 HV
2020-Apr-19
1.1 LD
7.2
6
2020 HU3
2020-Apr-20
3.3 LD
13.9
23
2020 GA3
2020-Apr-20
8.1 LD
17.5
35
2020 HB
2020-Apr-21
5.8 LD
13.5
33
2020 HO1
2020-Apr-21
10.1 LD
6.1
15
2020 GB3
2020-Apr-22
13.3 LD
5.4
18
2020 HP4
2020-Apr-23
6 LD
17.3
17
2020 HQ4
2020-Apr-24
6.8 LD
4.1
15
2020 HW3
2020-Apr-24
13.9 LD
27.9
139
2020 HX3
2020-Apr-24
0.7 LD
15.1
14
2020 HN3
2020-Apr-26
2.3 LD
4.3
4
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
148
2020 HS1
2020-Apr-27
18 LD
2
26
2020 HT1
2020-Apr-28
11.1 LD
9.7
24
2020 HP
2020-Apr-28
14.1 LD
10.4
54
2020 HG3
2020-Apr-29
12.5 LD
11
21
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457
2020 HW2
2020-Apr-29
18 LD
9.8
38
2020 HO3
2020-Apr-30
17.5 LD
9.3
22
2020 GY2
2020-Apr-30
17.1 LD
16.2
67
2020 HB3
2020-Apr-30
12.9 LD
12.2
35
2020 HK3
2020-May-01
4.4 LD
23.4
52
2020 HF4
2020-May-01
9.1 LD
2.6
10
2020 DM4
2020-May-01
18.4 LD
6.4
158
2020 HU2
2020-May-01
7.4 LD
5.6
19
2020 HL1
2020-May-03
12.6 LD
11.9
31
2020 GE3
2020-May-04
19.1 LD
5.2
21
2020 HQ3
2020-May-04
10.7 LD
9.4
29
2020 HL
2020-May-05
16.7 LD
9.1
35
438908
2020-May-07
8.9 LD
12.8
282
2020 HM4
2020-May-07
10.8 LD
18.2
39
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
163348
2020-Jun-06
13.3 LD
11.1
339
2013 XA22
2020-Jun-09
10.6 LD
6.5
98
2017 MF7
2020-Jun-14
3.7 LD
10.9
23
2018 PD22
2020-Jun-19
17.2 LD
14.6
56
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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