| | 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: 2.1 nT Bz: -1.2 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2347 UT Coronal Holes: 29 Aug 18 Solar wind flowing from this leaky coronal hole could reach Earth on Aug. 30-31. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The season for noctilucent clouds in he northern hemisphere is underway. Check here daily for the latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 08-29-2018 12:55:02 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2018 Aug 29 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 Aug 29 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 10 % | MINOR | 05 % | 01 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 25 % | 20 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Lights Over Lapland has a brand-new website full of exciting adventures in Abisko National Park, Sweden! Take a look at our aurora activities and book your once-in-a-lifetime trip with us today! | | | SOLAR MINIMUM GEOMAGNETIC STORM: For most of 2018, the face of the sun has been blank, completely without sunspots. That didn't stop the sun from launching a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. On Aug. 20th, a reorganization of unstable magnetic fields in the sun's atmosphere hurled a cloud of plasma into space--no sunspot required. When that cloud (or "CME") reached Earth on Aug. 25-26, it sparked auroras all the way from the Arctic Circle to Indiana. Browse the aurora photo gallery to see the glow of a solar minimum geomagnetic storm. Free: Aurora Alerts. ICE IN THE MESOSPHERE: As August comes to an end, summertime noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are supposed to be long gone. Normally, the mesosphere dries up in August, leaving no water to crystallize around meteor smoke. This August, however, is not normal. Only two nights ago, Adrien Mauduit saw the rippling forms of NLCs drifting over Silsand, Norway: "It is impressive to see some ice still in the mesosphere at this time of year!" says Mauduit. "The display lasted for at least 3 hours, and it included a band of green auroras leftover from the previous night's surprisingly strong G3-class geomagnetic storm." In Mauduit's photo, the dark forms hanging relatively close to the ground are normal tropospheric clouds. Noctilucent clouds glow high overhead, bathed in the light of the sun 83 km above Earth's surface. Data from NASA's satellite-based Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument show that this August is indeed strange, with unusually high levels of water vapor in the mesosphere. Indeed, it has been the wettest August in the mesosphere for the past 11 years. Extra water has provided raw material for noctilucent clouds. Researchers still aren't sure why this is happening. Some possibilities are discussed in the recent Spaceweather.com news item, "A Mystery in the Mesosphere." Realtime NLC Photo Gallery ANTI-CREPUSCULAR RAYS: The sun was setting yesterday in Golden, Missouri, when a spray of shadowy rays sprang up from the horizon. They looked like ordinary sunset rays except for one thing--"the sun was on the opposite side of the sky," says Zachary Blazek, who witnessed the display and photographed it from the verge of Table Rock Lake: What were they? The answer: Anti-crepuscular rays. Behind Blazek's back, the setting sun dipped behind some ragged clouds. The edges of those clouds cast shadows--immense tubes of darkness--that arced all the way across the sky to converge on the opposite horizon. Such shadows are called "anti-crepuscular rays." Anti-crepuscular rays are not rare, but they are delicate and often go unnoticed as people look away from them, attracted by the colors of the setting sun on the opposite side of the sky. Readers, the next time you find your self tranfixed by the sunset, turn around. A beautiful display of anti-crepuscular rays might be waiting behind your back. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery IRIDESCENT SPACE PYRAMID: Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been traveling around the world launching cosmic ray balloons to map Earth's radiation field. This runs up a big helium bill. To help pay it, we sent 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 sales support hands-on STEM education Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery 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 Aug. 29, 2018, the network reported 25 fireballs. (25 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 August 29, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2018 PR9 | 2018-Aug-24 | 18.1 LD | 14 | 46 | 2018 QH1 | 2018-Aug-27 | 13.2 LD | 12.5 | 27 | 2018 LQ2 | 2018-Aug-27 | 9.4 LD | 1.5 | 39 | 2016 GK135 | 2018-Aug-28 | 16.8 LD | 2.8 | 9 | 2016 NF23 | 2018-Aug-29 | 13.2 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 | 2001 RQ17 | 2018-Sep-02 | 19.3 LD | 8.3 | 107 | 2015 FP118 | 2018-Sep-03 | 12.3 LD | 9.8 | 490 | 2018 QA | 2018-Sep-03 | 17.5 LD | 20.4 | 73 | 2017 SL16 | 2018-Sep-20 | 8.5 LD | 6.4 | 25 | 2018 EB | 2018-Oct-07 | 15.5 LD | 15.1 | 155 | 2014 US7 | 2018-Oct-17 | 3.2 LD | 8.7 | 19 | 2013 UG1 | 2018-Oct-18 | 10.4 LD | 13.4 | 123 | 2016 GC221 | 2018-Oct-18 | 8.7 LD | 14.4 | 39 | 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 | SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: 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 18% since 2015: 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. En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes: In this plot, 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. 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. 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 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. | | 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 | | If you are a Youtuber and want to buy real Youtube views than try out Buyrealsocial.com for the best results possible! | | To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings. | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | | | | | ©2017 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |