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SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts |
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Updated at: 2026 Apr 26 2200 UTC
FLARE |
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
CLASS M |
55
% |
55
% |
CLASS X |
15
% |
15
% |
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 Apr 26 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
30
% |
10
% |
MINOR |
05
% |
01
% |
SEVERE |
01
% |
01
% |
High latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
15
% |
20
% |
MINOR |
35
% |
20
% |
SEVERE |
35
% |
10
% |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
This is an AI Free Zone: AI is everywhere -- except here. Spaceweather.com is written by Dr. Tony Phillips, a carbon-based lifeform with 30 yrs of forecasting experience. If you find a mistake, rest assured it was made by a real human being.
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MAJOR FLARE WATCH IN EFFECT: NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of M-class flares and a 15% chance of X-flares on April 27th. The likely sources are sunspots 4420 and 4425, which have unstable 'delta-class' magnetic fields. Earth is in the strike zone for both active regions. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
COMET PANSTARRS, THE UNICORN: Over the weekend, Comet PanSTARRS (C/2025 R3) passed almost directly between Earth and the sun. We couldn't see it from Earth, but SOHO's C3 coronagraph had an excellent view. Here is the complete passage. Pay special attention to what happens near the end:
Just before the comet exits the field of view, it sprouts a second tail sticking out of its head. We slowed the animation to make it easier to catch.
We know what happened. The bright thick tail visible throughout the comet's transit is its dust tail. Comet dust is relatively heavy, so it is not easily blown away from the sun by radiation and solar wind. Thus, the dust tail tends to trace the comet's orbit.
The narrow plume emerging from the comet's head is not made of dust. It is the gaseous ion tail. Made of lightweight molecules, the ion tail is easily pushed off the comet's orbit by solar wind. At the end of the animation, this ion tail rotates into view--and a unicorn is born.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
A FIGURE-8 IN THE SKY: David Marshall of Christ Church, Barbados, is a veteran observer of sun halos--arcs of light that circle the sun when icy clouds fill the sky. Yesterday, however, he saw something for the first time. "In addition to an ordinary 22-degree halo, there was also another circle crossing through the sun and centered on the zenith," he says. "I had never seen this before."
"It was easily visible to the naked eye and not a result of reflection within the camera," he adds.
Marshall photographed a complete parhelic circle--a rare sight when the sun is near the zenith. Normally, parhelic circles form when the sun is low in the sky, and the arc circles the horizon in a giant 360-degree sweep. These arcs are quite dramatic.
As the sun climbs higher in the sky, the parhelic arc shrinks in size, becoming even smaller than a 22-degree halo. This type of small parhelic circle is less dramatic than the giant version, but arguably more eye-catching. You can see the whole thing without turning around, and it creates an apparent figure-8 at the apex of the sky. Congratulations to David Marshall for catching this rare formation!
THE ANTIGRAVITY MOTHER'S DAY SCULPTURE: Mother’s Day is coming. Do you need a far-out gift? Consider the Antigravity Mother’s Day Sculpture. On Jan. 7, 2026, it flew to the stratosphere onbord a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $225.95. Made of bronze, the statue celebrates the uplift only a mom can provide. It makes a great Mother's Day gift, especially when paired with a rose.
With your purchase, you'll also receive a greeting card showing the sculpture in flight. Printed inside the card, a paragraph of text tells 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
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 April 27, 2026, the network reported 8 fireballs.
(7 sporadics, 1 eta Aquariids)
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 April 27, 2026 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2026 GL2 |
2026-Apr-22 |
7.1 LD |
10.4 |
32 |
| 2026 HY1 |
2026-Apr-22 |
3.9 LD |
9.3 |
24 |
| 2026 BK2 |
2026-Apr-22 |
10 LD |
8.1 |
219 |
| 2026 HL2 |
2026-Apr-22 |
3 LD |
5.5 |
6 |
| 2026 HK |
2026-Apr-22 |
10.8 LD |
18.7 |
26 |
| 2026 HV3 |
2026-Apr-23 |
10.7 LD |
11.7 |
54 |
| 2026 HR2 |
2026-Apr-23 |
1 LD |
11.7 |
10 |
| 2026 HZ2 |
2026-Apr-23 |
0.2 LD |
9.6 |
3 |
| 2026 HE4 |
2026-Apr-23 |
5.6 LD |
15.7 |
22 |
| 2026 HH4 |
2026-Apr-23 |
2.1 LD |
15 |
13 |
| 2026 HO2 |
2026-Apr-23 |
12.1 LD |
8.4 |
27 |
| 2026 HZ1 |
2026-Apr-24 |
14 LD |
7.1 |
17 |
| 2026 HZ4 |
2026-Apr-24 |
0.1 LD |
13.3 |
4 |
| 2022 UU8 |
2026-Apr-25 |
8.7 LD |
4 |
9 |
| 2026 HE5 |
2026-Apr-25 |
2.8 LD |
7.7 |
12 |
| 2026 HP2 |
2026-Apr-26 |
13.3 LD |
10.9 |
30 |
| 2026 HR |
2026-Apr-27 |
16.6 LD |
7.6 |
22 |
| 2026 HJ3 |
2026-Apr-27 |
16.2 LD |
7.1 |
26 |
| 2026 GU1 |
2026-Apr-28 |
12.4 LD |
6.4 |
76 |
| 2026 HW |
2026-Apr-28 |
9.6 LD |
11.8 |
35 |
| 2026 HP3 |
2026-Apr-29 |
15.5 LD |
11.3 |
30 |
| 2026 HL3 |
2026-Apr-29 |
6.7 LD |
8.6 |
26 |
| 2026 HX3 |
2026-May-01 |
8.1 LD |
11.4 |
21 |
| 2026 HY3 |
2026-May-01 |
7.2 LD |
9 |
18 |
| 2026 HZ3 |
2026-May-01 |
4 LD |
8.4 |
33 |
| 2026 GW3 |
2026-May-02 |
13.9 LD |
5.8 |
21 |
| 2026 HA3 |
2026-May-02 |
5 LD |
12.1 |
46 |
| 2026 HD3 |
2026-May-02 |
8.4 LD |
11.5 |
20 |
| 2026 HE2 |
2026-May-03 |
15.5 LD |
6.6 |
24 |
| 2026 GD1 |
2026-May-03 |
14.6 LD |
6.6 |
48 |
| 2026 HK4 |
2026-May-05 |
11 LD |
20.2 |
22 |
| 2026 HN1 |
2026-May-06 |
9.2 LD |
14.2 |
65 |
| 2026 HA4 |
2026-May-07 |
4.1 LD |
9 |
20 |
| 2026 HY2 |
2026-May-07 |
5 LD |
9 |
34 |
| 2026 HD2 |
2026-May-08 |
17.7 LD |
10.7 |
43 |
| 2020 GE3 |
2026-May-09 |
11.1 LD |
6 |
21 |
| 2023 VR5 |
2026-May-16 |
7.5 LD |
2.3 |
10 |
| 2026 HC5 |
2026-May-17 |
7.1 LD |
6.7 |
21 |
| 2025 KR4 |
2026-May-18 |
15.2 LD |
5.9 |
22 |
| 2023 KH4 |
2026-May-24 |
5.5 LD |
7.9 |
14 |
| 2023 KZ1 |
2026-May-24 |
9 LD |
13.4 |
20 |
| 2026 HW2 |
2026-May-29 |
17.7 LD |
12.5 |
127 |
| 2023 BM4 |
2026-May-30 |
12.2 LD |
5.7 |
64 |
| 2021 KN2 |
2026-Jun-03 |
8.9 LD |
8.9 |
7 |
| 2018 GE |
2026-Jun-07 |
16.4 LD |
3.1 |
11 |
| 2016 VS |
2026-Jun-12 |
20 LD |
11.1 |
12 |
| 530520 |
2026-Jun-12 |
16.1 LD |
14.6 |
152 |
| 2003 LN6 |
2026-Jun-18 |
3.7 LD |
3.9 |
41 |
| 2025 WC4 |
2026-Jun-21 |
10.2 LD |
19.2 |
304 |
| 2015 LM24 |
2026-Jun-22 |
18.2 LD |
13.8 |
71 |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU.
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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 |
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current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics. |
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Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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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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