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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 272.2 km/sec
density: 9.5 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A8
2243 UT Jun10
24-hr: B1
1023 UT Jun10
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 10 Jun 17
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 10 Jun 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 1 day
2017 total: 39 days (25%)
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 10 Jun 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 74 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 10 Jun 2017

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.9 nT
Bz: 1.1 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
Coronal Holes: 10 Jun 17

There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: NASA/SDO.
Noctilucent Clouds NASA's AIM spacecraft, which monitors NLCs from space, recent moved into a new orbit around Earth. Daily data are currently unavailable while the spacecraft's pointing settles. Polar images should resume in early June. Stay tuned!
Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated at: 02-24-2017 17:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2017 Jun 10 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 Jun 10 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
15 %
15 %
SEVERE
10 %
10 %
 
Saturday, Jun. 10, 2017
What's up in space
       
 

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

 

BLANK SUN HERALDS SOLAR MINIMUM: Sunspot AR2661 has dissolved, leaving the face of the sun blank.  This is the 39th day in 2017 (so far) that the sun has been without spots, continuing a sharp decline in the solar cycle.  Forecasters expect Solar Minimum to arrive in 2019-2020.  Free: Solar Flare Alerts

DID A SPY SATELLITE JUST VISIT THE ISS? On May 1st at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX launched a classified satellite (USA 276) for the US National Reconnaissance Office. Watching the spysat go into orbit, analysts around the world quickly realized something odd. The orbit of USA 276 was similar to that of the International Space Station and could theoretically make close approaches to the orbiting outpost. 

On June 3rd, that's exactly what happened. "USA 276 made a close approach and effectively circled the ISS," reports Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands.  He prepared this diagram showing the circumstances of the encounter:


Amateur satellite watchers have been tracking USA 276 since late May, and their observations have resulted in ever-improving estimates of the satellite's orbit.  "With the latest data included, we can establish the moment of closest approach as 3 June 2017, 14:01:52 UT. It happened in daylight over the southern Atlantic north of the Falklands, near 43o.75 S, 45o.45 W, with a miss distance of only 6.4 ± 2 km."

In the diagram above, the brick-colored box has dimensions of  4 x 4 x 10 km.  Whenever an object looks like it is going to pass through that box, ISS mission controllers evaluate the possibility of a collision avoidance maneuver. "USA 276 remained just outside the 4 x 4 x 10 km box at closest approach," notes Langbroek.  "As a result, collision avoidance maneuvers were not required."


USA 276 looped around the ISS, according to an analysis by Langbroek

Why is an American spy satellite buzzing the ISS? Maybe it's a chance encounter. Senior satellite analyst Ted Molczan has published arguments for and against that possibility. "I am inclined to believe that the close conjunctions between USA 276 and ISS are intentional," he says.

Molczan points out that USA 276 might be visiting the ISS to test Raven--a technology demonstration project on the ISS researchers are using to develop spacecraft autopilot systems.  Raven has visible, infrared, and lidar sensors that can track incoming spacecraft, feeding the data to an onboard processor for decision-making about rendezvous and docking.

"I imagine that USA 276 could add to the Raven data set as follows," speculates Molczan. "If it can rendezvous, then it could keep station for long periods, during which it could change its attitude to present the sensors with a variety of views, under a variety of lighting conditions. The total data collected could potentially far exceed that from the other visiting spacecraft."

If USA 276 does return to the ISS, observers will probably know about it. Langbroek has photographed the spysat in the night sky and it is visible to the unaided eye, like a dim 3rd magnitude star. Interested observers can get local flyby times from Heaven's Above or N2YO.

THE STRAWBERRY FULL MOON: According to folklore, tonight's full Moon is the Strawberry Moon, named after plants that bear their delicious red fruit during the month of June. But if this is really the Strawberry Moon, why does it look so ... orange? John Stetson photographed the carotene-colored orb setting over Sebago Lake, Maine, on June 8th:

The orange color is imprinted by the atmosphere. When the Moon is hanging low, airborne dust and other particles scatter blue from moonlight, leaving only red and orange hues.

Something else happens when the Moon is hanging low: The Moon Illusion magnifies the apparent size of the orb. It looks huge. Some commentators have pointed out that the June 9th Strawberry Moon is a "mini-Moon" because it is located on the distant apogee side of the Moon's elliptical orbit. Apogee is no match for the Moon Illusion, though. Look for the Strawberry Moon rising in the east at sunset.  It's a huge delight.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

THE SPACE HAMMER FOR FATHER'S DAY: Just in time for Father's Day: The Space Hammer. On June 2nd, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload of hammers to the edge of space, 35.0 km (115,000 feet) above Earth's surface on board a high altitude helium balloon. You can have one for $99.95:

These compact 8 oz. hammers are light enough to fly on a balloon yet dense enough to deliver a powerful blow. The magnetic head holds a nail for one-handed starting, and the stubby 6 in. length is perfect for tight work areas.

Each space hammer comes with a unique gift card showing the tool floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. 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.

More edge of space Father's Day gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky Store.

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


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Comet 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 Jun. 10, 2017, the network reported 9 fireballs.
(8 sporadics, 1 Daytime Arietid)

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 June 10, 2017 there were 1803 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2017 LD
2017-Jun-05
3 LD
4.8
11
2017 KR27
2017-Jun-06
7 LD
12.6
72
2017 KQ27
2017-Jun-06
1 LD
10.7
24
2017 LE
2017-Jun-07
5.2 LD
9
19
2017 HV4
2017-Jun-10
19.5 LD
3.9
50
2017 KF3
2017-Jun-11
12.9 LD
11.2
40
2010 VB1
2017-Jun-16
10.3 LD
8.3
81
471984
2017-Jun-18
19.1 LD
7.7
102
441987
2017-Jun-24
7.9 LD
12.7
178
2017 BS5
2017-Jul-23
3.2 LD
5.8
54
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
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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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