 | | | 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: 7.81 nT
Bz: 5.50 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 21 Nov 24 
There are no significant equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA  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 Nov. 21, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is rapidly cooling and will soon be cold enough for Type I polar stratospheric clouds, but Type II clouds are still more than 10 degrees away. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for NLCs is underway--but not for long. The first clouds were detected inside the Arctic Circle on May 25, 2024, by the NOAA 21 satellite. After peaking in July, the clouds are now in rapid decline. This is typical for the month of August, which usually brings the end of NLC season in the northern hemisphere.
Updated: Aug. 28, 2024
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: 2024 Nov 21 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 50 % | 50 % | 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: 2024 Nov 21 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 25 % | 25 % | MINOR | 10 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 35 % | 35 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | | SOLAR RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons are raining down on Earth today following an unexpected explosion behind the sun's western limb. This solar radiation storm currently registers category S1 (Minor), but it will probably intensify in the hours ahead to S2 (Moderate) based on current trends. Stay tuned. Radiation storm alerts: SMS Text TRIMETHYL ALUMINUM TWISTERS: This is not what Geir Svendsen expected to see on Nov. 16th when he went outside in Lofoten, Norway, to hunt for auroras. High above the mountains were glowing twisters of trimethyl aluminum (TMA): 
"These appeared right after a rocket launch from the Andoya Space Center," explains Svendsen. The NASA rocket carried 16 canisters of trimethyl aluminum, which were released into the upper atmosphere to trace "hurricane-like swirls" ~100 km above Earth's surface. Measuring tens of kilometers in diameter, these high-altitude vortices are a poorly understood phenomenon. Researchers from Clemson University will use video footage from the rocket mission (called "VortEx") to test competing models of their formation. NASA says the TMA vapors released by their rockets are "not harmful to people or life on the ground." This may be technically true, but only because people on the ground are so far away from the vapors. TMA is highly flammable, corrosive, and reacts violently with water. One of the chemical by-products of its luminous reaction with air is aluminum oxide, a compound implicated in ozone depletion. Small amounts released by sounding rockets probably do little harm, but it all adds up. What NASA should say: "Mostly harmless." Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter BLACK FRIDAY AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.
Carried aloft by giant helium balloons, these unique gifts have flown above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out. Don't forget to enter coupon code "HANDOFAPOLLO" at checkout for a 10% Early Black Friday discount. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
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Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Nov 20, 2024, the network reported 19 fireballs.
(10 Leonids, 8 sporadics, 1 Northern Taurid)  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 November 21, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2024 VK3 | 2024-Nov-16 | 1.1 LD | 11.1 | 12 | | 2024 VS3 | 2024-Nov-16 | 4.3 LD | 13.1 | 22 | | 2024 VC4 | 2024-Nov-16 | 6.5 LD | 19.3 | 29 | | 2024 VZ2 | 2024-Nov-17 | 3.3 LD | 10.2 | 22 | | 2024 UC5 | 2024-Nov-17 | 10.8 LD | 4.2 | 20 | | 2024 VT3 | 2024-Nov-18 | 12.6 LD | 12.3 | 42 | | 2024 WC | 2024-Nov-18 | 1.3 LD | 19.3 | 12 | | 2023 WK3 | 2024-Nov-18 | 16.1 LD | 14.5 | 272 | | 2024 WH | 2024-Nov-18 | 2.9 LD | 14.7 | 13 | | 2024 UZ10 | 2024-Nov-18 | 11.6 LD | 13.2 | 48 | | 2024 WG | 2024-Nov-19 | 6.1 LD | 9.4 | 17 | | 2024 WJ | 2024-Nov-19 | 0.2 LD | 4.8 | 4 | | 2024 VQ4 | 2024-Nov-19 | 14.2 LD | 14.6 | 99 | | 2024 WL | 2024-Nov-19 | 3.2 LD | 10.6 | 26 | | 2024 VU2 | 2024-Nov-19 | 15.1 LD | 8.7 | 40 | | 2012 KO11 | 2024-Nov-20 | 6.2 LD | 9.4 | 43 | | 2024 UW9 | 2024-Nov-20 | 13.5 LD | 14.8 | 46 | | 2020 VX4 | 2024-Nov-20 | 10.5 LD | 10.5 | 11 | | 2010 WC | 2024-Nov-21 | 1.9 LD | 9.1 | 31 | | 2024 WF | 2024-Nov-21 | 4.4 LD | 8.5 | 10 | | 2024 WE | 2024-Nov-23 | 2.7 LD | 2.7 | 10 | | 2024 VY2 | 2024-Nov-24 | 16.3 LD | 13.2 | 53 | | 2024 WK | 2024-Nov-24 | 4.6 LD | 11 | 20 | | 2009 WB105 | 2024-Nov-25 | 15.1 LD | 18.9 | 71 | | 2006 WB | 2024-Nov-26 | 2.3 LD | 4.2 | 98 | | 2018 DC4 | 2024-Nov-29 | 18.8 LD | 4.5 | 12 | | 2019 JN2 | 2024-Nov-30 | 9.4 LD | 7.7 | 25 | | 2021 XZ | 2024-Dec-02 | 13.2 LD | 7.4 | 8 | | 447755 | 2024-Dec-03 | 14.4 LD | 12.2 | 402 | | 2020 XR | 2024-Dec-04 | 5.8 LD | 12.3 | 388 | | 2021 WA5 | 2024-Dec-05 | 9.8 LD | 5.9 | 12 | | 2024 UU3 | 2024-Dec-08 | 16.9 LD | 4.8 | 38 | | 2018 XU3 | 2024-Dec-11 | 16.8 LD | 10.8 | 28 | | 2007 XB23 | 2024-Dec-11 | 1.2 LD | 4.8 | 14 | | 2022 YO1 | 2024-Dec-17 | 2 LD | 14.3 | 4 | | 2020 XY4 | 2024-Dec-19 | 12.8 LD | 8.8 | 14 | | 2017 YD2 | 2024-Dec-27 | 18 LD | 9.9 | 6 | | 2024 AV2 | 2024-Dec-31 | 6.7 LD | 7.8 | 17 | | 2021 AO4 | 2025-Jan-04 | 6.9 LD | 15.1 | 11 | | 2020 BC6 | 2025-Jan-05 | 9.6 LD | 22.2 | 248 | | 2024 BM1 | 2025-Jan-08 | 11.5 LD | 9.1 | 22 | | 2024 PT5 | 2025-Jan-09 | 4.7 LD | 1 | 12 | | 2023 OS3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 19.9 LD | 3.1 | 10 | | 2012 UK171 | 2025-Jan-11 | 10.7 LD | 6.4 | 46 | | 2023 OS | 2025-Jan-15 | 16.6 LD | 10.9 | 48 | | 2022 CE2 | 2025-Jan-16 | 11.1 LD | 13.3 | 120 | | 2022 OB5 | 2025-Jan-18 | 8.9 LD | 1.4 | 6 | 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. | |
