| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 3.00 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 3.00 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 8.20 nT Bz: 1.32 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 29 Dec 22 Solar wind flowing from this northern coronal hole could graze Earth on New Year's Eve. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The southern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds has begun. NASA's AIM spacecraft detected the first electric-blue puffs over Antarctica on Dec. 1st. Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Dec29 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Dec 29 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 50 % | 45 % | 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: 2022 Dec 29 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 30 % | 35 % | MINOR | 05 % | 15 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 10 % | MINOR | 20 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 25 % | 50 % | | | | | | | | | | | | 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! | | | THE LAST AURORAS OF 2022? The year could end with an Arctic light show. NOAA forecasters say there is a chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Dec. 30-31 when a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. CIRs are transition zones between fast- and slow-moving solar wind streams. They often contain shock waves that do a good job sparking auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. BIG FARSIDE SUNSPOTS:You might suppose that the farside of the sun is hidden from view. However, researchers using a technique called "helioseismology" can make crude maps of the sun's hidden hemisphere. Their latest map reveals multiple farside active regions: The black blobs are probably sunspot groups--big ones. The first of the three will rotate onto the Earthside of the sun this weekend, followed by the other two next week. This could bring an uptick in geoeffective solar activity. Stay tuned! Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter LUNAR OCCULTATION OF MARS: Mark your calendar. On Jan. 30-31, 2023, the Moon will pass directly in front of Mars, producing an occultation visible across southern US states, all of Mexico and Central America. At the time of the occultation, the gibbous Moon will be 74% illuminated. Mars will disappear behind the unilluminated side of the Moon and reappear from behind the illuminated side. Because Mars is so bright, it can be seen even near the bright edge of the Moon. Photo-op! In Los Angeles, Mars will disappear at 20:36 PST and reappear at 21:30 PST on Jan. 30th. To find your local times, visit in-the-sky.org and set the location to your home town. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter THE NORTHERN LIGHTS PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider this: The Northern Lights Pendant. Here it is, hitching a ride to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon: You can have it for $129.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. It makes an out-of-this-world birthday, anniversary, or Mother's Day gift! Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education 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 Dec 29, 2022, the network reported 8 fireballs. (6 sporadics, 1 Quadrantid, 1 Dec. Leonis Minorid) 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 December 29, 2022 there were 2321 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2022 YO5 | 2022-Dec-24 | 7.6 LD | 9.9 | 42 | 2022 YO | 2022-Dec-24 | 3.5 LD | 9.3 | 13 | 2022 YY4 | 2022-Dec-24 | 18.3 LD | 8.1 | 21 | 2022 YH6 | 2022-Dec-24 | 12.5 LD | 9.2 | 25 | 2018 YK2 | 2022-Dec-24 | 9.8 LD | 14.7 | 98 | 2022 YZ4 | 2022-Dec-24 | 16.4 LD | 12.4 | 21 | 2022 XN | 2022-Dec-24 | 8.5 LD | 11 | 47 | 2022 YX2 | 2022-Dec-24 | 0.6 LD | 11.3 | 7 | 2022 XM1 | 2022-Dec-24 | 9.7 LD | 12.7 | 31 | 2022 YL1 | 2022-Dec-25 | 7.7 LD | 12.2 | 50 | 2022 YK3 | 2022-Dec-25 | 1.6 LD | 12.8 | 5 | 2022 YY1 | 2022-Dec-25 | 5.2 LD | 14.7 | 22 | 2013 YA14 | 2022-Dec-25 | 2.7 LD | 10.5 | 68 | 2022 TE14 | 2022-Dec-25 | 11.2 LD | 7 | 127 | 2022 YB1 | 2022-Dec-26 | 5.7 LD | 14.8 | 26 | 2022 YA6 | 2022-Dec-26 | 0.4 LD | 12.6 | 10 | 2022 YH5 | 2022-Dec-26 | 9.1 LD | 15.7 | 18 | 2019 LT5 | 2022-Dec-27 | 16.2 LD | 15 | 118 | 2022 YY3 | 2022-Dec-27 | 2.6 LD | 8.5 | 9 | 2022 YR4 | 2022-Dec-27 | 0.8 LD | 7.7 | 6 | 2022 YG1 | 2022-Dec-27 | 11.3 LD | 16.2 | 28 | 2022 YF6 | 2022-Dec-27 | 2.5 LD | 19.1 | 18 | 2022 WV9 | 2022-Dec-27 | 6.5 LD | 7.3 | 47 | 2010 XC15 | 2022-Dec-27 | 2 LD | 10.1 | 182 | 2022 XL1 | 2022-Dec-27 | 7.6 LD | 8.4 | 26 | 2022 YL | 2022-Dec-27 | 7.9 LD | 5.6 | 18 | 2021 AE | 2022-Dec-28 | 16.5 LD | 15 | 23 | 2022 YG5 | 2022-Dec-30 | 8.2 LD | 14.2 | 16 | 2022 YR1 | 2023-Jan-01 | 16.3 LD | 6 | 23 | 2022 YT3 | 2023-Jan-02 | 11.1 LD | 6.4 | 25 | 2022 YU3 | 2023-Jan-02 | 9.8 LD | 7.1 | 24 | 2022 YP5 | 2023-Jan-02 | 7.8 LD | 4.8 | 14 | 2021 NF | 2023-Jan-02 | 17.9 LD | 11.3 | 40 | 2022 YJ4 | 2023-Jan-03 | 5.3 LD | 5.6 | 15 | 2011 WR41 | 2023-Jan-03 | 15.8 LD | 8.9 | 34 | 2019 AY3 | 2023-Jan-04 | 16.8 LD | 19.7 | 62 | 2022 YS4 | 2023-Jan-04 | 6 LD | 6.8 | 28 | 2022 YL4 | 2023-Jan-05 | 5.2 LD | 2 | 11 | 2022 YN1 | 2023-Jan-06 | 18.3 LD | 5.5 | 54 | 2021 TL | 2023-Jan-09 | 14.2 LD | 8.5 | 75 | 2022 YD5 | 2023-Jan-12 | 8.3 LD | 10.6 | 45 | 2022 YZ2 | 2023-Jan-12 | 16.6 LD | 6.5 | 86 | 2022 YS5 | 2023-Jan-13 | 15.6 LD | 6 | 42 | 2014 LJ | 2023-Jan-14 | 4.8 LD | 3.5 | 7 | 2022 YH3 | 2023-Jan-14 | 19 LD | 16.3 | 90 | 2012 BV13 | 2023-Jan-16 | 12.2 LD | 6.7 | 134 | 2020 BP | 2023-Jan-20 | 5.2 LD | 16.9 | 26 | 2019 BO2 | 2023-Jan-24 | 12.1 LD | 16.2 | 21 | 2019 BZ4 | 2023-Jan-24 | 16.5 LD | 5.6 | 20 | 2020 BZ14 | 2023-Jan-26 | 8.8 LD | 6.7 | 54 | 2022 SO113 | 2023-Jan-29 | 10.5 LD | 3.5 | 73 | 2017 DU34 | 2023-Feb-02 | 13.3 LD | 11.2 | 16 | 367789 | 2023-Feb-03 | 4.7 LD | 9.9 | 149 | 2020 OO1 | 2023-Feb-04 | 4.8 LD | 7.7 | 19 | 2022 YO6 | 2023-Feb-06 | 12.2 LD | 13.4 | 191 | 2022 CX1 | 2023-Feb-09 | 17.4 LD | 13.2 | 14 | 2021 EP4 | 2023-Feb-13 | 19 LD | 6.1 | 5 | 199145 | 2023-Feb-16 | 12 LD | 24.6 | 756 | 2022 RG | 2023-Feb-16 | 8.2 LD | 3 | 24 | 2020 DG4 | 2023-Feb-17 | 1.4 LD | 6.9 | 8 | 2020 CX1 | 2023-Feb-19 | 17.4 LD | 7.7 | 53 | 37638 | 2023-Feb-21 | 17 LD | 11.1 | 495 | 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 | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings. 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