| | 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: 9.2 nT Bz: 2.8 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2350 UT Coronal Holes: 29 Nov 17 Solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole should reach Earth on Nov. 29. 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 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: 2017 Nov 29 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 25 % | 15 % | MINOR | 10 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 30 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 35 % | 20 % | | | | | | | | | | | | All-inclusive Northern Lights trips in Tromsø, Norway. Small groups, big experiences! Highly qualified guides ensure unique and unforgettable adventures with a personal touch. Visit Explore the Arctic | | | GEOMAGNETIC STORM PREDICTED (G1-CLASS): NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 29th when a CME is expected to sideswipe Earth's magnetic field. There's more: A fissure in the sun's atmosphere is spewing solar wind into space, and the stream of gaseous material could reach Earth on Nov. 29th as well. Polar auroras are likely in response to the combined effect of the CME and the solar wind. Free: Aurora Alerts. THE STRANGE TAIL OF COMET PANSTARRS: Most comets have long curving tails, stretching gracefully into space. Comet PanSTARRS (C/2016 R2) is different. Approaching the sun just beyond the orbit of Mars, the tail of Comet PanSTARRS is interrupted by gaps, knots, and billowing clouds. The tail is so dynamic, it is changing visibly during a single observing session. Astrophotographer Michael Jäger of Gamlitz, Austria, has been monitoring the comet and he made this animation using frames spanning less than a few hours on Nov. 22nd: The movie shows gaseous blobs moving away from the nucleus as well as apparent activity in the comet's inner jets. What's happening? Sunlight could be vaporizing fragile ices in the comet's core, exposing caverns of frozen gas which are puffing clouds into space. Or the comet might be experiencing a magnetic storm. Magnetic storms in comet tails have been observed before--most famously in 2007 when NASA's STEREO spacecraft watched a CME crash into Comet Encke. Encke's tail was ripped into forms akin to those Jäger is seeing in Comet PanSTARRS now. The comet was discovered in August 2016 by the PanSTARRS telescope on the summit of the Haleakalā volcano in Maui. PanSTARRS's primary mission is to detect near-Earth asteroids that threaten our planet. In the process, it sweeps up variable stars, supernovas, and comets. When this comet was first discovered, it appeared to be quiet and ordinary; not anymore. Comet PanSTARRS (C/2016 R2) is currently moving through the constellation Orion, shining with the integrated brightness of an 11th magnitude star. This means it is a suitable target for large backyard telescopes equipped with modern deep-sky cameras. Experienced observers like Jäger may be able to see more action in the nights ahead. Monitoring is encouraged. Realtime Comet Photo Gallery THE CHRISTMAS SPACE PICKLE: The Christmas pickle is a holiday tradition in the United States. Make way for a new tradition: The Christmas Space Pickle! To raise money for their cosmic ray research, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown a payload full of the glass pickle ornaments to the stratosphere, and you can have one for your own tree. Priced at $79.95, each space-faring gherkin comes with a Christmas card showing your ornament in space. The inside flap tells the story of the pickle's flight and confirms that the pickle has traveled to the edge of space and back again. It also comes with a bonus photo of the pickle in the stratosphere. Hang it on your Christmas tree alongside the pickle itself to impress holiday visitors! Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All proceeds support hands-on STEM education Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery 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 Nov. 29, 2017, the network reported 32 fireballs. (30 sporadics, 1 Geminid, 1 November omega Orionid) 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 29, 2017 there were 1869 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2017 WR15 | 2017-Nov-23 | 15 LD | 24.5 | 43 | 2017 WE28 | 2017-Nov-24 | 5.8 LD | 9.3 | 16 | 2017 VZ14 | 2017-Nov-24 | 3.2 LD | 8.4 | 33 | 2017 WZ13 | 2017-Nov-25 | 6.9 LD | 11 | 18 | 2017 WT12 | 2017-Nov-25 | 3 LD | 14.7 | 13 | 2017 VY13 | 2017-Nov-25 | 2 LD | 10.5 | 18 | 2017 WH13 | 2017-Nov-26 | 1.7 LD | 11.4 | 16 | 2017 WQ13 | 2017-Nov-26 | 12.7 LD | 9.5 | 20 | 2017 WO16 | 2017-Nov-26 | 10.6 LD | 7.6 | 35 | 2017 WC14 | 2017-Nov-27 | 7.3 LD | 11.1 | 26 | 2017 WK15 | 2017-Nov-27 | 8.8 LD | 5.6 | 16 | 2017 WF15 | 2017-Nov-27 | 20.1 LD | 9.7 | 18 | 2017 WK1 | 2017-Nov-28 | 7.8 LD | 8 | 14 | 2017 WD28 | 2017-Nov-28 | 4.5 LD | 13.3 | 26 | 2017 WF16 | 2017-Nov-29 | 3.7 LD | 4.2 | 6 | 2017 WN15 | 2017-Nov-29 | 7.4 LD | 19.4 | 38 | 2017 WH2 | 2017-Nov-30 | 6.4 LD | 16.8 | 48 | 2008 WM61 | 2017-Dec-02 | 3.7 LD | 4.7 | 16 | 2017 WH16 | 2017-Dec-03 | 17.4 LD | 15.2 | 26 | 2017 WZ27 | 2017-Dec-03 | 13.6 LD | 4.2 | 11 | 2017 WS13 | 2017-Dec-05 | 9.5 LD | 11.3 | 41 | 2017 WF28 | 2017-Dec-06 | 17.6 LD | 7.6 | 21 | 2017 WV12 | 2017-Dec-09 | 3.5 LD | 10.6 | 25 | 2017 WE13 | 2017-Dec-12 | 16.4 LD | 5.4 | 26 | 2017 VS14 | 2017-Dec-12 | 15.9 LD | 2.8 | 15 | 2015 XX169 | 2017-Dec-14 | 9.7 LD | 6.3 | 11 | 2006 XY | 2017-Dec-14 | 3.4 LD | 4.9 | 56 | 2017 VT14 | 2017-Dec-17 | 3.8 LD | 10.4 | 105 | 2011 YD29 | 2017-Dec-19 | 17.6 LD | 7.7 | 20 | 2017 WX12 | 2017-Dec-21 | 10 LD | 11.6 | 128 | 2017 TS3 | 2017-Dec-22 | 18.1 LD | 10.2 | 136 | 418849 | 2017-Dec-22 | 15.3 LD | 17.4 | 257 | 2015 YQ1 | 2017-Dec-22 | 17.3 LD | 11.1 | 9 | 2017 WZ14 | 2017-Dec-24 | 7.6 LD | 4.9 | 32 | 2017 QL33 | 2017-Dec-30 | 13.3 LD | 8.2 | 191 | 2015 RT1 | 2018-Jan-02 | 19.7 LD | 9 | 30 | 2004 FH | 2018-Jan-10 | 20 LD | 8.5 | 26 | 306383 | 2018-Jan-22 | 14.4 LD | 17.4 | 178 | 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. | 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 | | Reviews here can help you to pick up best memory foam mattresses. | | 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. | |