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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 318.3 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B5
2117 UT May25
24-hr: B5
2117 UT May25
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 25 May 17
Small sunspot AR2659 has a stable magnetic field that poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 15
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 25 May 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2017 total: 37 days (26%)
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 25 May 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 78 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 25 May 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: 3.8 nT
Bz: 0.8 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
Coronal Holes: 25 May 17

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. 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 May 25 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
05 %
05 %
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 May 25 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
20 %
20 %
 
Thursday, May. 25, 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!

 

CME TO SIDESWIPE EARTH THIS WEEK: On May 23rd, the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory observed a CME leaving the sun: movie. NOAA analysts say the plasma-filled cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field midday on May 26th, causing geomagnetic unrest and polar auroras. Free: Aurora Alerts

THE MIDNIGHT GLOW: Midnight is supposed to be dark. But at this time of year, northern sky watchers are seeing something contrary: a midnight glow. Ruslan Merzlyakov photographed the phenomenon on May 21st from Nykøbing Mors, Denmark:

"This is how dark the sky is during the summertime," says Merzlyakov. At midnight, the sun was only about 13 degrees below the horizon, so the glow was visible long after the sun had set. "The Milky Way won't be available to photograph again until the beginning of August."

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

THE UNUSUAL ORBIT OF SPY SATELLITE USA 276: On May 1st, SpaceX launched a classified satellite from Cape Canaveral: USA 276. "Last night, it passed over my house glowing like a 3rd magnitude star," reports veteran satellite observer Marco Langbroek, who sends this picture from Leiden, the Netherlands:


"The mystery payload appeared alongside a number of other objects (including the classified Milstar 3 r/b)," he says. "It's getting crowded up there."

Immediately after its May 1st launch, USA 276 was a topic of much discussion among expert observers. "The launch azimuth seemed to suggest a 50 degree orbital inclination," says Langbroek. "That would be odd, so not everybody was willing to believe this." But now it is clear that USA 276 does have such an orbit.

As Langbroek explains in his blog, other military and reconnaissance satellites tend to have orbital inclinations clustered around 57 degrees, 123 degrees, 63.4 degrees or 98 degrees.

"An orbital inclination of 50.0 degrees, as shown by USA 276, is odd and unusual. The orbit of USA 276 is remarkably similar to that of the ISS, in fact, as shown by Ted Molczan in a private communication. The two can potentially even make quite close approaches, to within a few km."

Indeed, a close encounter could be in the offing. "I have found that on June 4, USA 276 will in fact be very close by when the SpaceX DRAGON CRS-11 supply ship is scheduled to arrive at the ISS--that is, if USA 276 doesn't change its current orbit before then. Observers in Europe might see the three objects close together in their evening twilight of June 3, with USA 276 some 15 degrees distant from the ISS."

No one knows if this is plan or pure coincidence ... or if the conjunction will even happen. One thing is sure: Observers in Europe will be watching. Stay tuned for updates.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

THIS PENDANT HAS TOUCHED SPACE: The radiation monitoring program of Earth to Sky Calculus receives no support from corporate sponsors or government grants. Instead, we are crowd-funded. Or, to be more precise, bling-funded:

To raise money for more cosmic ray balloon flights, on May 6th the students launched a payload of these Northern Lights pendants to the top of Earth's atmosphere. You can have one for $79.95. Each piece of space jewelry comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back. They make great birthday and belated Mother's Day gifts.

More far-out gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery


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 May. 25, 2017, the network reported 10 fireballs.
(10 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 May 25, 2017 there were 1803 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2017 KG5
2017-May-20
15.5 LD
27.4
42
2017 KY4
2017-May-20
2.5 LD
9.3
42
2017 KH3
2017-May-24
18.7 LD
20
62
2017 KW4
2017-May-25
3.9 LD
13
28
2017 KH5
2017-May-25
1.3 LD
14.9
11
2017 CS
2017-May-29
8 LD
9.1
468
418094
2017-Jun-01
8 LD
23.2
490
2017 KX4
2017-Jun-01
15.3 LD
9.5
46
2017 KJ3
2017-Jun-03
11.1 LD
11.2
49
2017 KJ5
2017-Jun-04
11.6 LD
3.7
16
2017 HV4
2017-Jun-10
19.5 LD
3.9
51
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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