You are viewing the page for Jun. 1, 2018
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 726.0 km/sec
density: 4.8 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B1
2034 UT Jun01
24-hr: B2
0610 UT Jun01
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 01 June 18
Sunspot AR2712 has developed a beta-gamma magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 21
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Jun 2018

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2018 total: 80 days (53%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
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 01 Jun 2018


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 77 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 01 Jun 2018

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 5
storm
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.0 nT
Bz: -3.3 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
Coronal Holes: 01 Jun 18

Earth is entering a stream of solar wind flowing from this broad coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent Clouds The season for northern noctilucent clouds is beginning now. Check here daily for the latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 06-01-2018 22:55:03
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2018 Jun 01 2300 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 Jun 01 2300 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
30 %
MINOR
25 %
15 %
SEVERE
10 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
60 %
45 %
 
Friday, Jun. 1, 2018
What's up in space
       
 

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 STORMS: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are disturbing Earth's polar magnetic field today as a fast-moving stream of solar wind swirls around our planet. The gaseous material is flowing from an equatorial hole in the sun's atmosphere. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras, especially in the southern hemisphere where autumn darkness favors visibility. Free: Aurora Alerts.

'STEVE' SPOTTED IN CANADA: Last night as Earth was entering a stream of high-speed solar wind, hot currents of plasma began to flow through the upper atmosphere. When this happens, STEVE appears. Matthew Wheeler saw the purple ribbon of light from Robson Valley, British Columbia:

"It was visible to the naked eye despite bright moonlight," says Wheeler, who, on darker nights, has taken some incredible videos of the STEVE phenomenon.

This particular stream of solar wind has a knack for summoning STEVE. One solar rotation ago, in early May, the same stream lashed Earth's magnetic field. STEVE was then sighted not only in Canada (its usual habitat) but also in multiple US states. Bright moonlight this time is making the mysterious ribbon more difficult to see, and will probably reduce the number of sightings.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS SEEN FROM THE GROUND: Only a few days after NASA's AIM spacecraft began to see noctilucent clouds (NLCs) forming over Earth's northern hemisphere, people on the ground are beginning to see them, too. "They are back!" reports Ruslan Merzlyakov of Hjørring, Denmark. "I saw the NLCs during the early hours of May 31st." In this picture, they are silvery ripples beaming through the orange glow of sunrise:

Early-season sightings of NLCs are always like this--faint and silvery, with a rippling structure that distinguishes them from ordinary clouds. They may not remain faint for long. Previous data from AIM have shown that NLCs are like a great "geophysical light bulb." They turn on every year in late spring, reaching almost full intensity over a period of 5 to 10 days. Soon the silvery ripples Merzlyakov spotted should intensify and spread, forming electric-blue waves that glow deep into the night.

What are NLCs? You can think of them as frosted meteoroids. Noctilucent clouds form when summertime wisps of water vapor waft up to the top of Earth's atmosphere and crystallize around specks of meteor smoke. The resulting swarms of tiny ice crystals glow electric blue when struck by high altitude sunlight.

Realtime NLC Photo Gallery

A FATHER'S DAY GIFT FROM SPACE: Father's Day is this month. Are you thinking of buying Dad a tie? We have something even better. A space tie:

To support their cosmic ray ballooning program, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown a payload of psychedelic blue bow ties to the stratosphere, 29 km (91,000 feet) above Earth's surface. You can have one for $79.95.

Each bow tie comes with a unique gift card showing the neckwear 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. All proceeds support high-altitude balloon launches and student space weather research.

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


Realtime Aurora 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. 1, 2018, the network reported 82 fireballs.
(81 sporadics, 1)

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 1, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2018 JK3
2018-May-27
19.7 LD
21.8
166
2018 KR
2018-May-28
15.7 LD
4
19
68347
2018-May-29
9.5 LD
13.3
389
2018 KN2
2018-May-29
6.1 LD
8
28
2013 LE7
2018-May-31
17.8 LD
1.7
12
2018 KE1
2018-Jun-01
10.8 LD
16.2
33
2018 EJ4
2018-Jun-10
5.6 LD
6.2
195
2015 DP155
2018-Jun-11
9 LD
4.4
170
2018 KC3
2018-Jun-19
14.5 LD
8.8
90
2017 YE5
2018-Jun-21
15.6 LD
15.5
513
467309
2018-Jun-23
17.9 LD
14
355
441987
2018-Jun-24
7.3 LD
12.6
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.

  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
   
Okanagan Real Estate
   
Buy real active Instagram followers
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
   
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.