You are viewing the page for Nov. 8, 2017
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 598.1 km/sec
density: 7.0 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A5
1812 UT Nov08
24-hr: A6
1022 UT Nov08
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 08 Nov 17
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 08 Nov 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 7 days
2017 total: 75 days (24%)
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 08 Nov 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 69 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 07 Nov 2017

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 6
storm
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.3 nT
Bz: -0.8 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
Coronal Holes: 08 Nov 17

Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from this wide northern coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent Clouds Latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft show that the 2017 northern summer season for noctilucent clouds has finished.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 09-03-2017 01:55:03
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2017 Nov 08 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: 2017 Nov 08 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
30 %
MINOR
30 %
25 %
SEVERE
15 %
10 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
20 %
25 %
SEVERE
55 %
50 %
 
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017
What's up in space
       
 

Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that our Customizable Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today!

 

GEOMAGNETIC STORMS LIKELY TODAY: NOAA forecasters say there is a 60% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 8th as Earth moves into a fast-moving stream of solar wind. Isolated periods of G2-class storming are possible as well. The gaseous stream is flowing from a wide hole in the sun's atmosphere, and our planet is expected to remain inside it for at least another 24 hours. Free: Aurora Alerts.

NORTHERN LIGHTS INVADE THE USA: Space weather forecasters predicted a minor geomagnetic storm on Nov. 7th. It turned out to be much stronger. As night fell across North America, auroras spilled across the Canadian border into more than a dozen US states. Jack Webb photographed these red columns towering over Wapiti, Wyoming:

"That's a 10,500 ft (3200 m) mountain in the foreground," says Webb. "At this latitude (+44 N) it takes a pretty good geomagnetic storm to get above it."

Auroras were sighted in Alaska, Vermont, New York, Wyoming, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and--believe it or not--Nebraska:

"This was predicted to be a G1-class storm, but I think it went crazier," says photographer Jingpeng Liu of Prague, Nebraska (lat. +41 N). "Immediately after sunset I noticed a red-ish glow above the horizon and it turned out to be strong auroras. What a treat to central Nebraska!"

What made this display so strong? A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 7th. The leading edge of the stream contained a co-rotating interaction region (CIR). CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving streams of solar wind; they hold density gradients and strong magnetic fields that do an extra-good job sparking auroras. The arrival of the CIR sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm and a surprisingly good show. Free: Aurora Alerts.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

SOLAR ECLIPSE CRYSTAL PYRAMID: On Aug. 21, 2017, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. The armada of balloons soared into the stratosphere, touching the shadow of the Moon more than 100,000 feet above Earth's surface. As a fundraiser, one of the balloons carried this pyramid, and you can have it for $139.95:

With the sun, Earth, and Moon perfectly aligned, the faces of the 5-sided crystal caught the reflection of the eclipsed sun while wrapped in the space-cold shadow of our planet's gray cratered companion. Watch the video! The payload capsule contained more crystals just like it.

Each pyramid comes with a unique gift card showing the crystal floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere and passing through the Moon's shadow. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.

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

WHITE SATIN AURORAS: A solar wind stream engulfed Earth during the early hours of Nov. 7th, igniting a display of Northern Lights over Alaska. Todd Salat sends this picture from the Kenai Mountains in south-central Alaska:

"The auroras made beautiful music above Portage Lake on November 7th," says Salat. "During my aurora hunt I was playing a Moody Blues CD and their classic song 'Nights in White Satin' was the perfect soundtrack with white satin snow and powerful auroras that kept coming through in huge waves for hours on end."

Realtime Space Weather 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 Nov. 8, 2017, the network reported 18 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 1 Northern Taurid, 1 November I Draconid)

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 November 8, 2017 there were 1853 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2017 VD
2017-Nov-02
9.9 LD
27.5
230
2017 UL44
2017-Nov-03
13.3 LD
15.4
64
2017 VE
2017-Nov-04
0.9 LD
14.1
17
2017 UX42
2017-Nov-05
10.5 LD
2.6
7
2017 US7
2017-Nov-05
7.1 LD
8.8
13
2017 UJ7
2017-Nov-05
16.8 LD
13
28
2017 UJ43
2017-Nov-05
4.6 LD
7.3
10
2013 BD74
2017-Nov-06
10.6 LD
9
51
2017 TZ3
2017-Nov-09
10.3 LD
8.7
39
2017 VC
2017-Nov-10
9.9 LD
7.3
91
444584
2017-Nov-17
8.7 LD
14.8
324
2008 WM61
2017-Dec-03
3.8 LD
4.7
16
2015 XX169
2017-Dec-14
9.7 LD
6.3
11
2011 YD29
2017-Dec-19
17.6 LD
7.7
20
2006 XY
2017-Dec-20
6.5 LD
5
56
2017 TS3
2017-Dec-22
18.2 LD
10.2
131
418849
2017-Dec-22
15.3 LD
17.4
257
2015 YQ1
2017-Dec-22
17.3 LD
11.1
9
2017 QL33
2017-Dec-30
13.3 LD
8.2
191
2015 RT1
2018-Jan-02
19.7 LD
9
30
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
Spaceweather.com welcomes two supporters of science communication: SEO Phoenix AZ and CRAS, the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences. Only the best social media jobs in the United States
   
Look no further to find the best Comox Valley Real Estate listings and homes for sale
   
Buy real active Instagram followers
Need a break from space weather? Relax with the best gaming headset
Houston SEO Expert
Guide for best car parts at prettymotors.com
   
Chicago SEO Expert
   
Search Kelowna Real Estate Listings & Homes for Sale easily.
Find help on all Calgary Homes For Sale and Real Estate Listings. Great source for Edmonton Real Estate Listings & Homes For Sale
  sponsored link
Wordpress Hosting and SEO Hero!
   
Need protection from UV radiation? Check out roofing In Grand Rapids MI
   
Reviews here can help you to pick up best memory foam mattresses.
  These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters!
  more links...
       
©2017 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.