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INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES: Don't be surprised if there's an X-flare today. Two sunspots (3961 and 3964) have unstable delta-class magnetic fields that harbor energy for strong explosions. Any flares will be geoeffective because the sunspots (especially 3961) are almost directly facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
EXTREME COLD IN THE ARCTIC STRATOSPHERE: A rare and potentially record-breaking outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) is underway inside the Arctic Circle. Janne Kukkola photographed the display from Rovaniemi, Finland:
"The colors were amazing to the naked eye," says Kukkola. "These clouds were appearing all over Finland, and even made the news. This is very rare."
Rare indeed. Normally, Earth's stratosphere has no clouds at all. Only when the temperature drops to a staggeringly-low -85 C can widely-spaced water molecules assemble into icy polar stratospheric clouds. With colors that rival auroras, PSCs are considered to be the most beautiful clouds on Earth.
Right now, NASA climate models are saying that the temperature of the polar stratosphere is at its lowest point since 1978. This super-cold air is directly responsible for the formation of PSCs. It is no coincidence that the polar vortex is now much stronger than average. The fast-moving vortex is keeping cold air bottled up over the Arctic. It's the "perfect storm" for PSCs. Stay tuned!
more images: from Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway; from Marianne Bergli of Tromsø, Norway; from Ville Puoskari of Kuopio, Finland; from Antti-Jussi Kaikuru of Autti, Rovaniemi, Finland
Realtime PSC Photo Gallery
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COMET ATLAS ENTERS THE SOUTHERN SKY: Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) is changing hemispheres. "The comet has finally arrived in the southern sky!" says Yuri Beletsky, who sends this picture from the ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile:
"It's clearly visible as a very bright object shortly after sunset," he says. "Although the tail is still quite short, the comet is truly beautiful."
The southern shift is shown in this visibility plot from Nick James of the British Astronomical Association. Latitudes below -10o are sharply favored for the rest of January. This sets the stage for many beautiful photos from the southern hemisphere in the nights to come.
more images: from Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger of Farm Tivoli, Namibia; from Ian Cooper of Glen Oroua, Manawatu, New Zealand; from Ben Levis of Perth, Western Australia; from Mariano Ribas of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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"I LOVE YOU MORE" MOONSTONE PENDANT: Valentine's Day is coming! Nothing says "I love you" like a moonstone from space. This one hitched a ride on an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon, floating 112,201 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $162.95. The students are selling these sterling silver infinity-wrapped moonstone pendants to support their ballooning program. Engraved with "I Love You More," it makes a romantic Valentine's gift. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the moonstone in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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Realtime Comet 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 Jan 16, 2025, the network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 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 January 19, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2005 YU128 | 2025-Jan-14 | 19.1 LD | 7 | 31 |
| 2025 AS | 2025-Jan-14 | 16.1 LD | 9.2 | 46 |
| 2024 YX5 | 2025-Jan-14 | 11.7 LD | 10.6 | 25 |
| 2025 BE | 2025-Jan-15 | 13.1 LD | 19.1 | 60 |
| 2023 OS | 2025-Jan-15 | 16.5 LD | 10.9 | 48 |
| 2025 BF | 2025-Jan-16 | 12.5 LD | 8.4 | 45 |
| 2022 CE2 | 2025-Jan-16 | 11.1 LD | 13.3 | 120 |
| 2024 YF2 | 2025-Jan-17 | 4.4 LD | 4.4 | 17 |
| 2025 AO2 | 2025-Jan-17 | 2 LD | 10.3 | 18 |
| 2025 BD | 2025-Jan-17 | 0.6 LD | 16 | 13 |
| 2025 AF | 2025-Jan-17 | 19.8 LD | 8.8 | 35 |
| 2022 OB5 | 2025-Jan-18 | 8.9 LD | 1.4 | 6 |
| 2024 YB10 | 2025-Jan-18 | 15.1 LD | 2.5 | 16 |
| 2024 WY70 | 2025-Jan-18 | 16.5 LD | 10.2 | 261 |
| 2024 YQ5 | 2025-Jan-19 | 17.6 LD | 5 | 29 |
| 2025 BC | 2025-Jan-19 | 2.9 LD | 3.6 | 15 |
| 2025 BA | 2025-Jan-20 | 7.9 LD | 24.8 | 70 |
| 2025 AY2 | 2025-Jan-20 | 17.7 LD | 23.3 | 71 |
| 2024 YY5 | 2025-Jan-26 | 12.5 LD | 2.4 | 14 |
| 2022 BX6 | 2025-Jan-28 | 19.7 LD | 14.3 | 24 |
| 2015 DJ155 | 2025-Jan-31 | 18.6 LD | 9.2 | 56 |
| 2018 RE3 | 2025-Feb-03 | 15.5 LD | 11.1 | 12 |
| 2022 AV4 | 2025-Feb-03 | 16.9 LD | 3.4 | 25 |
| 2002 CC14 | 2025-Feb-04 | 8.4 LD | 12.7 | 39 |
| 2016 CO248 | 2025-Feb-07 | 13.5 LD | 5.9 | 11 |
| 2020 GZ2 | 2025-Feb-07 | 17.7 LD | 8.9 | 9 |
| 2022 PK1 | 2025-Feb-07 | 15 LD | 11 | 33 |
| 2012 PB20 | 2025-Feb-09 | 3.5 LD | 4.3 | 37 |
| 2004 XG | 2025-Feb-16 | 15.6 LD | 9.1 | 54 |
| 2024 UD26 | 2025-Feb-16 | 16.8 LD | 9.3 | 250 |
| 2014 CE13 | 2025-Feb-18 | 15.2 LD | 18.4 | 55 |
| 2022 DG2 | 2025-Feb-19 | 11.5 LD | 10.4 | 7 |
| 2016 AX165 | 2025-Feb-20 | 14.9 LD | 9.2 | 89 |
| 2015 BK509 | 2025-Feb-25 | 9.4 LD | 14.6 | 119 |
| 2023 RW3 | 2025-Feb-25 | 7.4 LD | 5.1 | 18 |
| 535844 | 2025-Mar-05 | 9.6 LD | 7.9 | 149 |
| 2021 EU3 | 2025-Mar-10 | 10.7 LD | 4.4 | 13 |
| 2020 FO | 2025-Mar-15 | 13.4 LD | 20.6 | 23 |
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 |
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