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Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp=
1.67 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 5.00 storm
explanation | more
data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 9.04 nT
Bz: -0.25 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0822 UT
Coronal Holes: 06 Jul 25
There are no equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: NASA/SDO | 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 Jul 06, 2025, the Arctic stratosphere is much too hot for polar stratospheric clouds. | more data.
Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for noctilucent clouds is underway. First reports of the electric-blue clouds came from Russia on May 28, 2025. Since then, the clouds have spread to lower latitudes, reaching Paris, France, during a major outbreak on June 23, 2025.
Above: July 3, 2025, in Czech Republic
"This morning, truly bright NLCs appeared over. The clouds were so bright that I could even see my shadow, and the central part was overexposed. The colors were easily visible to the naked eyes, including the red tint at the upper edge of the clouds. What a display!," says photographer Petr Horálek of Proseč u Seče, Czech Republic.
See the complete NLC Photo Gallery
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts |
|
Updated at: 2025 Jul 05 2220 UTC
FLARE |
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
CLASS M |
10
% |
10
% |
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: 2025 Jul 05 2220 UTC
Mid-latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
15
% |
15
% |
MINOR |
05
% |
05
% |
SEVERE |
01
% |
01
% |
High latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
15
% |
15
% |
MINOR |
25
% |
25
% |
SEVERE |
25
% |
25
% |
|
|
|
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This is an AI Free Zone: AI isn't all bad. Large language models are good writers with access to vast stores of data. There's still no substitute for a human being with decades of space weather forecasting experience. This website is 100% human.
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ALMOST NO CHANCE OF FLARES TODAY: All of the sunspots currently facing Earth are quiet and stable. NOAA forecasters say there is a slight 10% chance of M-class solar flares and no more than a 1% chance of X-flares on July 6th. It's going to be a quiet weekend. CME impact alerts: SMS Text
INTERSTELLAR COMET ATLAS: Interstellar Comet ATLAS (C/2025 N1) is "screaming through the summer Milky Way," says amateur astronomer Chris Shur. He photographed the dirty snowball passing by star cluster M23 over Arizona on July 4th:
"This was the view through my 10-inch Newtonian Astrograph," says Schur. "I took two 5 minute exposures and stacked them. You can see two positions of the comet in the inset."
Schur's photo reveals two of the comet's key qualities: It is dim (magnitude +18) and it is moving very fast (58 km/s). Both make Comet ATLAS challenging to photograph.
This comet will never slow down much; it's a permanent "screamer." However, it will brighten in the months ahead. If it behaves like other comets in the Solar System (a big IF), Comet ATLAS could brighten 600-fold to magnitude +11 in late October 2025. That would be invisible to the naked eye, but a relatively easy target for mid-sized backyard telescopes.
Monitoring is encouraged, because we have no real idea what this alien comet will do next. Submit your photos here.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
STERLING SILVER STARCAT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Introducing the Sterling SIlver StarCat. On June 14th, this pendant hitched a ride to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $199.95. The silver feline form is wrapped around a genuine moonstone with a matching 18 inch Italian sterling silver chain. It is 100% hypoallergenic.
The students of Earth to Sky are selling space pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Jul 04, 2025, the network reported 7 fireballs.
(7 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]
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 July 6, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 NL |
2025-Jul-01 |
1.4 LD |
3 |
11 |
| 2025 MM |
2025-Jul-01 |
5.4 LD |
10.7 |
39 |
| 2025 MK90 |
2025-Jul-02 |
13.8 LD |
9.4 |
30 |
| 2025 NC |
2025-Jul-02 |
1.6 LD |
8.8 |
11 |
| 2025 MY88 |
2025-Jul-04 |
8.8 LD |
8.5 |
37 |
| 2025 MV89 |
2025-Jul-04 |
5.1 LD |
8.7 |
39 |
| 2025 MW91 |
2025-Jul-05 |
16 LD |
16.6 |
45 |
| 2025 MN88 |
2025-Jul-06 |
1.9 LD |
7.8 |
21 |
| 2025 NJ |
2025-Jul-07 |
9.4 LD |
13.6 |
27 |
| 2025 MO |
2025-Jul-07 |
6.7 LD |
4.6 |
10 |
| 2025 MC92 |
2025-Jul-08 |
4 LD |
5 |
9 |
| 2019 JM |
2025-Jul-09 |
16.6 LD |
6.9 |
14 |
| 2019 NW5 |
2025-Jul-09 |
15.2 LD |
16.5 |
65 |
| 2025 MH90 |
2025-Jul-10 |
19.4 LD |
6.5 |
53 |
| 2025 MD89 |
2025-Jul-11 |
14.7 LD |
8 |
38 |
| 2005 VO5 |
2025-Jul-11 |
15.9 LD |
14.4 |
397 |
| 2025 MD1 |
2025-Jul-11 |
18 LD |
8.9 |
44 |
| 2025 MG1 |
2025-Jul-12 |
13.2 LD |
7.2 |
41 |
| 2025 MA90 |
2025-Jul-15 |
17 LD |
9.1 |
89 |
| 2022 YS5 |
2025-Jul-17 |
17.4 LD |
6.1 |
38 |
| 2018 BY6 |
2025-Jul-19 |
13.7 LD |
7.4 |
68 |
| 2025 ME92 |
2025-Jul-20 |
13.4 LD |
5.3 |
31 |
| 2019 CO1 |
2025-Aug-08 |
17.8 LD |
10.5 |
65 |
| 2022 QB1 |
2025-Aug-10 |
8.9 LD |
3.9 |
6 |
| 2021 PJ1 |
2025-Aug-15 |
4.4 LD |
9.3 |
24 |
| 2025 CO3 |
2025-Aug-16 |
19.8 LD |
8.4 |
90 |
| 1997 QK1 |
2025-Aug-20 |
7.9 LD |
9.8 |
315 |
| 2022 QD3 |
2025-Aug-21 |
15 LD |
6.9 |
35 |
| 2023 PX |
2025-Aug-22 |
2.4 LD |
8.3 |
23 |
| 2019 QQ6 |
2025-Aug-24 |
9.4 LD |
17.2 |
31 |
| 2017 RK15 |
2025-Aug-29 |
15.8 LD |
13.2 |
26 |
| 2020 TS1 |
2025-Aug-29 |
17.8 LD |
3.3 |
5 |
| 1998 SH2 |
2025-Aug-30 |
8.1 LD |
17.3 |
246 |
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.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
| |
The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
| |
Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
| |
3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
| |
Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
| |
information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
| |
current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics. |
| |
Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
| |
from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
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from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
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