SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

Solar wind
speed: 285.0 km/sec
density: 11.0 protons/cm³
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1128 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A7 0504 UT Apr19
24-hr: B1 0404 UT Apr19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1100 UT

Daily Sun: 19 Apr 18

The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 19 Apr 2018

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 4 days
2018 total: 67 days (62%)
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%)
Updated 19 Apr 2018

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 71 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 19 Apr 2018

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
B_total: 1.3 nT
B_z: -0.7 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1127 UT

Coronal Holes: 19 Apr 18

Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on April 19-20. Credit: SDO/AIA

Noctilucent Clouds Our connection with NASA's AIM spacecraft has been restored! New images from AIM show that the southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is underway. Come back to this spot every day to see AIM's "daily daisy," which reveals the dance of electric-blue NLCs around the Antarctic Circle..

Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar

Updated at: 02-07-2018 17:55:05

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts

Updated at: 2018 Apr 18 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: 2018 Apr 18 2200 UTC

Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	35 %	30 %
MINOR	20 %	10 %
SEVERE	05 %	01 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	15 %	15 %
MINOR	30 %	30 %
SEVERE	45 %	35 %


		Thursday, Apr. 19, 2018
	What's up in space	Thursday, Apr. 19, 2018

Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that our aurora webcam will be up and running 365 days per year! You can now enjoy watching the Midnight Sun and all of the other drama in the sky above Abisko National Park, Sweden here.

SOLAR WIND APPROACHES EARTH: NOAA forecasters say that a stream of solar wind could hit Earth's magnetic field during the late hours of April 19th. We think April 20th is more likely. Either way, polar magnetic unrest is possible in the next 24-48 hours. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Free: Aurora Alerts

AURORA SEASON IS NOT FINISHED: As northern spring unfolds, the Midnight Sun is coming to the Arctic Circle. Nevertheless, auroras are still visible. Sacha Layos photographed this display over Fairbanks, Alaska, on April 18th:

"I didn't expect much last night, so I went to sleep like a normal person," says Layos, who spends most winter nights under the stars of Alaska photographing auroras. "I happily woke up from a dream to this sky around 2:30 a.m.!"

What happened? A crack opened in Earth's magnetic field--something that happens often during weeks around equinoxes. Ambient solar wind poured in to fuel the unexpected display.

The green in her photos shows that northern aurora season is not yet over. However, the blue in her photos shows that the end is near. Enjoy it while you can.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

MOTHER'S DAY IS LESS THAN 1 MONTH AWAY: Nothing says "I Love You" like a heart-shaped pendant from the edge of space. On March 17, 2018, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew an array of cosmic ray sensors to the stratosphere onboard a giant helium balloon. This pendant went along for the ride:

You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling these pendants as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray monitoring program--and they make great Mother's Day gifts. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation measurements and hands-on STEM education.

Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. Mom-satisfaction guaranteed.

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

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

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. 18, 2018, the network reported 18 fireballs.
(18 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 19, 2018 there were 1907 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid	Date(UT)	Miss Distance	Velocity (km/s)	Diameter (m)
2018 GP	2018-Apr-13	4.4 LD	8.8	14
2018 GV1	2018-Apr-13	4.8 LD	8.9	12
2018 GD5	2018-Apr-14	3.6 LD	6	10
2014 UR	2018-Apr-14	9.3 LD	4.4	17
2018 GH2	2018-Apr-14	14.3 LD	7.1	22
2018 GE3	2018-Apr-15	0.5 LD	29.6	61
2018 GC2	2018-Apr-17	9 LD	4.9	15
2018 GP4	2018-Apr-17	11.4 LD	9.3	18
2018 GK4	2018-Apr-17	5.9 LD	10.8	20
2018 GS3	2018-Apr-20	8.5 LD	19.8	22
2016 JP	2018-Apr-20	12 LD	12.7	214
2018 GR1	2018-Apr-21	18.3 LD	16.4	53
2018 GG4	2018-Apr-23	9.8 LD	14.9	19
2012 XL16	2018-Apr-23	15.8 LD	6.1	28
2018 GH	2018-Apr-25	14.6 LD	10.7	89
2018 GH5	2018-Apr-27	12.2 LD	12.7	32
2018 GB2	2018-Apr-27	17.1 LD	14.6	95
2013 US3	2018-Apr-29	10.1 LD	7.7	214
2018 GO4	2018-Apr-29	11.8 LD	8.6	45
2018 GY1	2018-Apr-29	13.2 LD	16.7	138
2018 FV4	2018-Apr-29	17.7 LD	6.5	58
2002 JR100	2018-Apr-29	10.8 LD	7.7	49
1999 FN19	2018-May-07	9.7 LD	5.7	118
2016 JQ5	2018-May-08	6.3 LD	10.4	9
388945	2018-May-09	6.5 LD	9	295
2018 GR2	2018-May-11	13.4 LD	9.9	110
1999 LK1	2018-May-15	13.3 LD	10	141
2018 GL1	2018-May-18	14.3 LD	5.2	66
68347	2018-May-29	9.5 LD	13.3	389
2013 LE7	2018-May-31	17.8 LD	1.7	12
2018 EJ4	2018-Jun-10	5.6 LD	6.2	195
2015 DP155	2018-Jun-11	9 LD	4.4	170

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

Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here:

This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. 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. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California.

What is this all about? 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 13% since 2015:

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.

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.

The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-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.

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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