Solar wind
speed: 420.7
km/sec
density: 1.1
protons/cm3 more data: ACE, SOLAR-1 Updated: Today at 2339 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2012 UT
Nov12
24-hr:
C7
0344 UT
Nov12
explanation
| more
data Updated: Today at: 2341 UT
Daily Sun: 12 Nov 26
Expand:labels | no labels
There are now eight sunspot groups on the Earthside of the sun following an outbreak of new spots on the eastern side of the solar disk. Credit: NASA/SDO
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp=
1.33 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1.67 quiet explanation | more
data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.9
nT
Bz: 2.1
nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2342 UT
Coronal Holes: 12 Nov 26
There are no significant equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: NASA/SDO | more data
Spotless Days Current Stretch: 0 days
2026 total: 4 days (2%)
2025 total: 0 days (0%)
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 12 Nov 2026
Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 11.67x1010W Cool
Max: 49.4x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05x1010 W Cold (02/2009) explanation | more data:gfx, txt
Updated 11 Nov 2026
Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant
disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor
storm, severe
storm
Updated at: 2026 Nov 12 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24
hr
24-48
hr
ACTIVE
05
%
10
%
MINOR
05
%
01
%
SEVERE
01
%
01
%
High latitudes
0-24
hr
24-48
hr
ACTIVE
15
%
15
%
MINOR
15
%
15
%
SEVERE
15
%
10
%
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026
What's up in space
AI writing is everywhere -- except here. This website is written by Dr. Tony Phillips, a carbon-based lifeform with 30 yrs of forecasting experience. Our guarantee: If you find a mistake, it was made by a real human being.
MARS AND JUPITER AT DAWN: Set your alarm for dawn. Mars and Jupiter are converging for a beautiful conjunction in the constellation Leo, with closest approach on Nov. 15-16. The planets are so bright, they remain visible even as surrounding stars begin to disappear into morning twilight. Look high in the southeast around 5:00 am. Sky maps:Nov. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
FRIDAY THE 13TH STARSHIP LAUNCH: SpaceX is about to try something no one has ever done. On Friday, Nov. 13th, the company will launch Starship from Starbase, Texas--and then try to catch both halves of the rocket with the launch tower.
Catching the Super Heavy booster has been done three times before. Catching the Starship itself is new. If it works, SpaceX will have recovered an entire orbital rocket for the first time. Elon Musk rates the odds "more likely than not."
The "double-catch" is headlining most news coverage, but a less-reported aspect of the launch is also important. SpaceX is about to double the population of the company's huge V3 Starlink satellites.
Starlink V3s are behemoths. Each one weighs about 2 tons. This places them in the top 2% of all satellites in low Earth orbit, according to an analysis of Jonathan McDowell's General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects. Each V3 weighs about as much as one of Europe's Sentinel-1 radar satellites. Those are flagship missions that take years to build, one at a time. SpaceX is building them on an assembly line and launching 26 at once. Friday's launch would double the number in orbit from 26 to 52.
Sky watchers may be able to see them. After they are released from Starship, the new V3s may form a naked-eye train visible in twilight from a band of latitudes between ~35N and ~35S. This includes the southern USA.
ASTRONAUT DESK LAMP: This is a truly far-out gift: The Astronaut Desk Lamp. It flew to the edge of space on Sept. 1, 2026--floating onboard a cosmic ray research balloon 100,212 feet above the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central California:
You can have it for for $168.95. The premium beech figurine stands almost 12-inches tall, is fully pose-able, and its internal battery worked for two full hours during its journey to the stratosphere, even when temperatures briefly dropped to -58 C. It comes with a full color gift card showing the lamp in flight.
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 November 11, 2026, the network reported 29 fireballs.
(23 sporadics, 4 Northern Taurids, 1 omicron Eridanid, 1 November I Draconid)
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 November 12, 2026 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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 sharply 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.
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.
