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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 333.7 km/sec
density: 10.4 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2351 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A2
1907 UT Jul03
24-hr: A2
1907 UT Jul03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 03 July 18
The sun is blank-- no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 03 Jul 2018

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 6 days
2018 total: 93 days (50%)
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 03 Jul 2018


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 68 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 03 Jul 2018

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.2 nT
Bz: 1.4 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2351 UT
Coronal Holes: 03 Jul 18

A minor stream of solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on July 3rd. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent Clouds The season for northern noctilucent clouds is beginning now. Check here daily for the latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 07-03-2018 20:55:03
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2018 Jul 03 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 Jul 03 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
15 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
15 %
15 %
 
Tuesday, Jul. 3, 2018
What's up in space
       
 

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SOLAR MINIMUM IS COMING: For the 6th day in a row and the 93rd day so far in 2018, the sun is blank--no sunspots. The featureless solar disk is a sign that Solar Minimum is coming. Indeed, it appears to be approaching even faster than forecasters predicted. How does this affect us? Ironically, weak solar activity boosts cosmic radiation in Earth's atmosphere--a situation that is expected to worsen in the years ahead. Free: Aurora Alerts.

FIREWORKS ON THE SUN: The face of the sun may be devoid of spots, but the edge of the sun is brimming with activity. "While folks in the USA are getting ready to celebrate the 4th of July with fireworks and BBQs, our sun is displaying some fireworks of its own in the form of a nice prominence," reports Bill Burnett, who sends this picture from Hamilton, Montana:

"The prominence is located on the NW edge of the sun," he says. "I photographed it using an 80mm ED Refractor equipped with an H-alpha filter--a type of safe filter tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen."

Prominences are, essentially, clouds of hot plasma held above the sun's surface by magnetic fields. They are most photogenic when they appear near the edge of the sun, allowing them to be photographed against of the canvas of black space beyond. This prominence is more than 50,000 km tall and at least three times as wide--dimensions that make it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. If you have one, take a look!

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

TRANS-PACIFIC SPACE WEATHER BALLOON LAUNCH: No one has ever done this before. On June 23rd, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched two space weather balloons separated by the entire Pacific Ocean. One balloon was released from Kawhia, New Zealand; the other from Bishop, California, more than 10,800 km away. These GPS pushpins show the balloons in flight:

The purpose of the unprecedented double launch was to measure cosmic rays in the atmosphere--specifically, to find out how they differ on opposite sides of the Pacific. We have been traveling around the globe for the past two years, mapping Earth's planetary radiation field with sensors carried aloft by helium balloons. New Zealand is now part of our monitoring network.

Launching balloons around the world runs up a big helium bill. To help pay it, the California team launched this iridescent crystal pyramid to the stratosphere:

You can have it for $149.95. The students are selling this pyramid and several others like it to fund the Earth to Sky ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pyramid in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. All sales support hands-on STEM research.

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


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Noctilucent Cloud 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 Jul. 3, 2018, the network reported 29 fireballs.
(28 sporadics, 1 July Pegasid)

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 July 3, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2018 LN2
2018-Jun-28
10.5 LD
9.4
87
2018 MH7
2018-Jun-28
11.4 LD
4.4
20
2018 LR3
2018-Jun-29
6 LD
3.8
20
2018 NA
2018-Jun-29
16.5 LD
13.1
85
2018 LT6
2018-Jul-01
11.6 LD
12.9
126
2018 LJ1
2018-Jul-01
13.9 LD
2.7
18
2018 MB7
2018-Jul-04
2.8 LD
11.6
63
2018 LQ2
2018-Aug-27
9.4 LD
1.5
41
2016 GK135
2018-Aug-28
16.8 LD
2.8
9
2016 NF23
2018-Aug-29
13.3 LD
9
93
1998 SD9
2018-Aug-29
4.2 LD
10.7
51
2018 DE1
2018-Aug-30
15.2 LD
6.5
28
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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