 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3.33 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 5.67 storm
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.87 nT
Bz: -3.46 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 22 Mar 25 
A minor stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on March 23-24. Credit: NASA/SDO | more data  Polar Stratospheric Clouds
Colorful Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops to a staggeringly low -85C. NASA's MERRA-2 climate model predicts when the air up there is cold enough: 
On Mar 22, 2025, the Arctic stratosphere is much too hot for Type II clouds. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is finished. The first clouds were detected over Antarctica on Nov. 19, 2024, and they vanished again on Feb. 21, 2025. The action will shift to the north pole in late May 2025. Until then, the map will remain blank.
Updated: Feb. 21, 2025
An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). In the daily map, above, each dot is a detected cloud. As the season progresses, these dots will multiply in number and shift in hue from blue to red as the brightness of the clouds intensifies.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2025 Mar 22 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 30 % | 30 % | CLASS X | 05 % | 05 % | Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2025 Mar 22 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 35 % | MINOR | 35 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 15 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 01 % | 05 % | MINOR | 10 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 85 % | 70 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is engulfing the Internet. It's slick, prolific, and some readers say it makes them feel seasick. For better or worse, all of the text on Spaceweather.com was written by a real human being. | | | STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM PREDICTED: NOAA forecasters are predicting a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm on March 23rd when a CME is expected to directly hit Earth. The CME was hurled into space yesterday by an M1-class solar flare from sunspot 4028. It's a faint and wimpy-looking CME, and normally wouldn't cause a strong storm. However, the Russell-McPherron effect boosts the effectiveness of CMEs around the equinox. CME impact alerts: SMS Text. AURORAS (AND MORE) IN THE USA: Last night (March 21-22), a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field. Solar wind poured through the gap to fuel a G2-class geomagnetic storm. Auroras spilled across the Canadian border into the USA as far south as Colorado, Arizona and maybe even Texas. Michele Sadauskas was watching the show from Glidden, Wisconsin, when she remembered one of her golden rules of aurora photography: "Always turn around and look behind you!" she says. "There was STEVE, very bright and easy to see with the naked-eye." 
STEVE is the narrow purple pillar embedded in the broader glow of red and green auroras. At first glance, STEVE looks like an aurora, but it is not. The phenomenon is caused by ribbons of hot gas flowing through Earth’s magnetosphere at speeds exceeding 13,000 mph. Discovered less than 10 years ago, STEVE appears unpredictably during some geomagnetic storms. "Within only a couple of minutes, the pink-purple color was lost, and what remained was a wider red arc that stretched from east to west," says Sadauskas. She then witnessed another light that is not an aurora--the SAR arc: 
This pure red band is a sign of heat energy leaking into the atmosphere from Earth's ring current system–a donut-shaped circuit carrying millions of amps around our planet. SAR arcs are yet another luminous phenomenon that can appear during geomagnetic storms alongside auroras. Always turn around, indeed! This complex light show was also recorded in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Browse the aurora gallery for more sightings: Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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ROSE QUARTZ TREE OF LIFE PENDANT: You cannot buy this on Amazon. Only the Earth to Sky Store has the Rose Quartz Tree of Life Space Pendant. This one flew to the stratosphere March 4th onboard a cosmic ray research balloon: 
You can have it for $129.95. The pendant's rose quartz gemstone is surrounded by a hand-wrapped stainless steel tree of life. During its 3-hour flight, it experienced temperatures as low as -63 C and air pressures less than 0.3% of sea level--truly, an out-of-this world gift! The students are selling space jewelry to pay the helium bill for their high altitude ballooning program. Each pendant 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 Venus Photo Gallery
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Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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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 Mar 22, 2025, 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] 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 March 22, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2025 FN | 2025-Mar-17 | 5.7 LD | 13.3 | 10 | | 2025 FD | 2025-Mar-18 | 5.1 LD | 24.5 | 60 | | 2025 FP | 2025-Mar-18 | 2.1 LD | 8.9 | 13 | | 2025 DU25 | 2025-Mar-18 | 2.9 LD | 5.3 | 13 | | 2025 FC | 2025-Mar-18 | 0.2 LD | 17.2 | 6 | | 2025 FA1 | 2025-Mar-18 | 6 LD | 11.4 | 22 | | 2025 FD1 | 2025-Mar-19 | 2.6 LD | 23.7 | 12 | | 2025 EQ2 | 2025-Mar-19 | 5.2 LD | 6.2 | 15 | | 2025 FC1 | 2025-Mar-19 | 1.7 LD | 18.8 | 11 | | 2025 FF | 2025-Mar-20 | 10.3 LD | 6.3 | 17 | | 2025 FL | 2025-Mar-20 | 1.2 LD | 9 | 19 | | 2025 FG | 2025-Mar-20 | 7.3 LD | 5.5 | 13 | | 2025 FE | 2025-Mar-21 | 7.9 LD | 15 | 41 | | 2025 FJ | 2025-Mar-21 | 2.4 LD | 11 | 9 | | 2021 FH1 | 2025-Mar-21 | 3.9 LD | 13.8 | 31 | | 2025 FK | 2025-Mar-21 | 19.8 LD | 12 | 35 | | 2025 FZ | 2025-Mar-22 | 3.3 LD | 7.2 | 11 | | 2025 DA15 | 2025-Mar-23 | 16.9 LD | 7.8 | 36 | | 2025 FS | 2025-Mar-24 | 3.1 LD | 13.6 | 22 | | 2025 FT | 2025-Mar-25 | 5.1 LD | 9 | 13 | | 2014 TN17 | 2025-Mar-26 | 13.3 LD | 21.5 | 174 | | 2025 DW5 | 2025-Mar-26 | 16.5 LD | 5.6 | 41 | | 2025 DV22 | 2025-Mar-27 | 16.5 LD | 12.2 | 59 | | 2020 VA4 | 2025-Mar-30 | 11.6 LD | 5.6 | 12 | | 2022 FR3 | 2025-Apr-01 | 6.6 LD | 7.4 | 105 | | 2020 XT2 | 2025-Apr-04 | 13.6 LD | 6.2 | 41 | | 2023 GC2 | 2025-Apr-04 | 17.3 LD | 6.3 | 12 | | 2020 FH4 | 2025-Apr-04 | 12.8 LD | 3 | 7 | | 2025 BC10 | 2025-Apr-05 | 9.7 LD | 22.9 | 479 | | 2007 SQ6 | 2025-Apr-05 | 10.9 LD | 6.6 | 129 | | 2025 DV40 | 2025-Apr-06 | 16.8 LD | 13.1 | 109 | | 2003 GQ22 | 2025-Apr-07 | 19.6 LD | 8.9 | 180 | | 2025 DL28 | 2025-Apr-08 | 16.2 LD | 5.6 | 38 | | 2023 HG | 2025-Apr-11 | 3.7 LD | 8.6 | 14 | | 2023 KU | 2025-Apr-11 | 2.8 LD | 18 | 119 | | 2023 RX1 | 2025-Apr-13 | 18.1 LD | 1.4 | 3 | | 2023 UH | 2025-Apr-15 | 8.8 LD | 11 | 21 | | 2022 UO | 2025-Apr-15 | 19.8 LD | 16.2 | 18 | | 2025 DC36 | 2025-Apr-15 | 14.2 LD | 4.9 | 58 | | 2017 RN16 | 2025-Apr-17 | 10.9 LD | 8.7 | 6 | | 2014 HS124 | 2025-Apr-22 | 10.9 LD | 8.9 | 93 | | 2019 FY2 | 2025-Apr-24 | 12.8 LD | 5.3 | 12 | | 462959 | 2025-Apr-25 | 12.9 LD | 9.5 | 213 | | 2024 BF | 2025-May-01 | 9.5 LD | 4.6 | 47 | | 2024 JM2 | 2025-May-03 | 7.2 LD | 11.3 | 62 | | 2021 JN1 | 2025-May-06 | 18.3 LD | 16.3 | 39 | | 2021 HZ | 2025-May-08 | 20 LD | 10.2 | 30 | | 612356 | 2025-May-09 | 11 LD | 5.1 | 305 | | 2021 KH | 2025-May-10 | 18.3 LD | 7.2 | 19 | | 2011 HJ7 | 2025-May-12 | 6.6 LD | 15.8 | 118 | | 2011 YU74 | 2025-May-13 | 11.4 LD | 5 | 90 | | 2025 DT50 | 2025-May-14 | 16 LD | 6.4 | 99 | | 2008 ST | 2025-May-20 | 13.5 LD | 2.5 | 14 | 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 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-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. See also, all satellite statistics. | | | 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 |  | Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | |  | | |  | ©2021 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |
