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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 361.0 km/sec
density: 5.5 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0004 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A8
2146 UT Apr14
24-hr: B1
1621 UT Apr14
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2359 UT
Daily Sun: 14 Apr 17
Tiny sunspot 2650 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 12
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 14 Apr 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2017 total: 28 days (27%)
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 14 Apr 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 74 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 14 Apr 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= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.8 nT
Bz: -2.3 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0003 UT
Coronal Holes: 14 Apr 17

Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth as early as April 16th. Credit: NASA/SDO.
Noctilucent Clouds The southern season for noctilucent clouds began on Nov. 17, 2016. Come back to this spot every day to see the "daily daisy" from NASA's AIM spacecraft, which is monitoring the dance of electric-blue around the Antarctic Circle.
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 Apr 14 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 Apr 14 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
25 %
05 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
15 %
SEVERE
20 %
15 %
 
Friday, Apr. 14, 2017
What's up in space
       
 

Directly under the Arctic Circle! Marianne's Arctic Xpress in Tromsø offers fjord, whale and wildlife tours by day, aurora tours by night. Email Marianne for bookings and availability.

 

NASA MAY HAVE TO BREAK RADIATION RULES TO GET TO MARS: As the sunspot cycle winds down, cosmic rays are intensifying throughout the solar system. If NASA wants to send astronauts to Mars through that thicket of radiation, the space agency may have to break some of its own safety rules. Get the full story from PBS/NOVA.

DISTURBANCES IN THE SOLAR WIND: As expected, a CME sideswiped Earth's magnetic field on April 14th. However, the impact was weak and it did not spark a full-fledged geomagnetic storm. A stream of solar wind following on the heels of the CME might be more effective. The gaseous material is flowing from a hole in the sun's atmosphere, shown in this extreme UV image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

This is a coronal hole (CH)--a place where the sun's magnetic field peels back and allows solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind emerging from this coronal hole should arrive during Easter weekend, possibly sparking polar auroras in the waxing Arctic twilight.  The coronal hole is wide, so the solar wind it emits should influence our planet for several days. Free: Aurora Alerts.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

SPOILER ALERT--SHE SAID "YES": Last week, longtime Spaceweather.com reader Erik Rasmussen proposed to his girlfriend Amy in a very special way. "I asked her to close her eyes, while I put an image on the TV set," he explains. "When that was ready, I got down on one knee with the ring in my hand, and said open your eyes." This is what she saw:


Erik's proposal--complete with a keepsake bear and Earth charm--had flown to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus space weather balloon.

"When the realization of what was going on started to kick in, I asked her to marry me," says Erik. "Let's just say she was very excited and impressed at the efforts all of us put into the proposal." And, by the way, she said "yes."

In collaboration with Spaceweather.com, student researchers launch these balloons almost weekly to monitor cosmic rays in the atmosphere.  (They're intensifying.) Erik donated $500 to sponsor a flight on March 19th.

"As a son of scientists, and a fan of astronomy/space exploration, I felt that this was a great way to propose and that my sponsorship dollars would be put to good use supporting the next generation of scientists," says Erik. "Thank you Earth to Sky for being a part of this epic moment in our life," adds Amy.

Readers, would you like to buy your own ticket to space? There's one waiting for you in the Earth to Sky Store.

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

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 Apr. 14, 2017, the network reported 9 fireballs.
(9 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]

  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 April 14, 2017 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

The asteroid table is undergoing development. Please check back shortly.

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 12% 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
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