Solar wind
speed: 498.8 km/sec
density: 4.24 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0955 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C5 0413 UT Dec21
24-hr: M2 1118 UT Dec20
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1000 UT
Daily Sun: 20 Dec 24
Expand: labels | no labels | Carrington
Sunspots 3922, 3924 and 3927 *all* have 'beta-gamma' magnetic fields that pose a threat for M-class solar flares. Photo credit: Ivo Demeulenaere of Flanders, Belgium

more images: from Germany; from Nevada;

Note: On Nov. 26, 2024, a flood at Stanford University damaged a number of important SDO data servers. Repairs will not be completed until 2025. As a result, for the foreseeable future, Daily Sun images will be coming from readers of Spaceweather.com. Thank you, citizen scientists!

Sunspot number: 148
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 21 Dec 2024

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2024 total: 0 days (0%)
2023 total: 0 days (0%)
2022 total: 1 day (<1%)
2021 total: 64 days (18%)
2020 total: 208 days (57%)
2019 total: 281 days (77%)
2018 total: 221 days (61%)
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%)
2008 total: 268 days (73%)
2007 total: 152 days (42%)
2006 total: 70 days (19%)
Updated 21 Dec 2024

Thermosphere Climate Index
 today: 25.37x1010 W Warm
Max: 49.4x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05x1010 W Cold (02/2009)
explanation | more data: gfx, txt
Updated 20 Dec 2024

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 184 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 21 Dec 2024

Cosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining--a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays.

Oulu Neutron Counts
Percentages of the Space Age average:
today: -6.8% Low
48-hr change: +0.5%
Max: +11.7% Very High (12/2009)
Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991)
explanation | more data
Updated 21 Dec 2024 @ 0700 UT

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2.00 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3.33 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.28 nT
Bz: 3.70 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0955 UT
Coronal Holes: 21 Dec 24

Solar wind flowing from this minor coronal hole should reach Earth on Dec. 23-24. It is not big enough to cause a geomagnetic storm. Credit: NOAA/GOES-16 | more data

Polar Stratospheric Clouds
Colorful Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops to a staggeringly low -85C. NASA's MERRA-2 climate model predicts when the air up there is cold enough:

On Dec. 21, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is cold enough for Type I polar stratospheric clouds, but a few degrees too warm for Type II clouds. | more data.

Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is underway!. The first clouds were detected over Antarctica on Nov. 19, 2024. Here is the current NLC map from the NOAA 21 satellite.

noctilucent clouds
Updated: Dec. 18, 2024

An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). In the daily map, above, each dot is a detected cloud. As the season progresses, these dots will multiply in number and shift in hue from blue to red as the brightness of the clouds intensifies.

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2024 Dec 20 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
65 %
60 %
CLASS X
10 %
10 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2024 Dec 20 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
20 %
SEVERE
25 %
15 %
 
Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024
What's up in space
       
 

This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being.

 

BIG SUNSPOT ALERT: A large and complicated group of sunspots has just emerged over the sun's southeastern limb. The group includes at least 15 dark cores and sprawls across more than 250,000 km of the sun's surface. Amateur astronomers, point your solar telescopes here. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

MERCURY'S TAIL HAS RETURNED: Space weather affects some planets more than others. It's really hard on Mercury. The solar wind scours Mercury's rocky surface at point-blank range, creating a "sodium tail" occasionally visible from Earth. David Marshall of Christ Church, Barbados, saw it on Dec. 20th:

"It's back! Mercury's sodium ion tail is approximately 1 degree long in this image and is expected to become more prominent over the next couple of days," says Marshall.

First predicted in the 1980s, Mercury’s tail was discovered in 2001. It is a yellow-orange tail of sodium-rich gas more than 24 million kilometers long.

Mercury's tail brightens and dims as it orbits the sun. The predictable pattern is shown in this movie from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which spent years observing Mercury’s tail from close range:

For reasons having to do with the Doppler shift of sodium absorption lines in the solar spectrum, Mercury’s tail is most luminous when the planet is ±16 days from perihelion (closest approach to the sun). The most recent perihelion was Dec. 7th.

This means the tail will reach peak brightness on Dec. 23rd. Astronomers who wish to photograph the plume must wake up before dawn. Mercury is currently a bright "morning star" (magnitude –0.3) low in the southeast about 60 to 45 minutes before sunrise.

Observing tip: A 589 nanometer filter tuned to the yellow glow of sodium greatly enhances the visibility of Mercury's tail.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter

CHRISTMAS GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.

Carried aloft by giant helium balloons, these unique gifts have flown above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out.

Don't forget to enter coupon code "BLACKCAT" at checkout for a 10% holiday discount.

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

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter

  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 Dec 19, 2024, the network reported 16 fireballs.
(13 sporadics, 3 December Leonis Minorids)

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 December 21, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2024 XB16
2024-Dec-15
5.5 LD
7.8
15
2024 XF4
2024-Dec-15
18.3 LD
14.5
63
2024 XY5
2024-Dec-16
9.1 LD
4.8
23
2024 XB6
2024-Dec-16
17.5 LD
6.6
18
2024 XV6
2024-Dec-16
17.5 LD
10.7
11
2024 XE16
2024-Dec-16
17.7 LD
3.7
47
2024 VE7
2024-Dec-16
7.3 LD
8
45
2022 YO1
2024-Dec-17
2 LD
14.3
4
2024 XR6
2024-Dec-17
15.3 LD
5.6
16
2024 XC17
2024-Dec-17
8.1 LD
4.8
12
2024 XS3
2024-Dec-18
8.7 LD
10.5
27
2024 YA
2024-Dec-19
3.7 LD
5.3
16
2020 XY4
2024-Dec-20
12.7 LD
8.8
14
2024 YD
2024-Dec-20
1.2 LD
10.5
12
2024 XN15
2024-Dec-21
9.9 LD
9.7
19
2024 XQ4
2024-Dec-21
2.8 LD
13.2
16
2024 YC
2024-Dec-23
1.6 LD
6.4
12
2024 XN1
2024-Dec-24
18.8 LD
6.6
39
2017 YD2
2024-Dec-27
18 LD
9.9
6
2024 AV2
2024-Dec-31
6.7 LD
7.8
17
2024 XP10
2025-Jan-02
19.8 LD
8.4
39
2021 AO4
2025-Jan-04
6.9 LD
15.1
11
2020 BC6
2025-Jan-05
9.6 LD
22.2
248
2024 BM1
2025-Jan-08
11.5 LD
9.1
22
2024 PT5
2025-Jan-09
4.7 LD
1
12
2023 OS3
2025-Jan-09
19.9 LD
3.1
10
2012 UK171
2025-Jan-11
10.7 LD
6.4
46
2023 OS
2025-Jan-15
16.6 LD
10.9
48
2022 CE2
2025-Jan-16
11.1 LD
13.3
120
2022 OB5
2025-Jan-18
8.9 LD
1.4
6
2024 WY70
2025-Jan-18
16.5 LD
10.2
261
2022 BX6
2025-Jan-28
19.7 LD
14.3
24
2015 DJ155
2025-Jan-31
18.6 LD
9.2
56
2022 AV4
2025-Feb-03
16.8 LD
3.4
25
2018 RE3
2025-Feb-03
15.5 LD
11.1
12
2002 CC14
2025-Feb-04
8.4 LD
12.7
39
2016 CO248
2025-Feb-07
13.5 LD
5.9
11
2020 GZ2
2025-Feb-07
17.7 LD
8.9
9
2022 PK1
2025-Feb-07
15 LD
11
33
2012 PB20
2025-Feb-09
3.5 LD
4.3
37
2004 XG
2025-Feb-16
15.6 LD
9.1
54
2024 UD26
2025-Feb-16
16.8 LD
9.3
250
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU.
  Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere

SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost 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 sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.

Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-year low:

What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down.

.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

Technical notes: 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.

Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-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 Regener 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.
SolarMonitor.org
  information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary
Starlink Satellite Statistics
  current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics.
The Aerospace Corporation
  Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries
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
Live Aurora Webcam
  from Lights over Lapland
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather

Spaceweather.com welcomes these supporters of science communication: RV Sales and Arizona Web Design & SEO and Dentist in Phoenix, AZand Commercial Cleaning Phoenix | Pest Control in Phoenix | HVAC repair in South Jersey | Dental implants New Jersey | Dental Implants New Jersey

To get the best views of the cosmos, check out the Phoenix Window Glass Replacement experts for all your window and glass needs
Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area.
NASA Near Earth Asteroid Home Page

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T CrB NOVA WATCH
today: m=10.0 (Dec. 20.5)
yesterday: m=9.9
more: AAVSO data

Explanation: When the nova explodes, the visual magnitude of the star (m) will jump from +10 (invisible to the naked eye) to +2 (about as bright as the North Star).



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