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Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp=
2.00 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3.67 quiet
explanation | more
data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.76 nT
Bz: 2.78 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0346 UT
Coronal Holes: 22 Jun 25
Solar wind flowing from this peanut-shaped coronal hole should reach Earth on June 26-27. 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 Jun 20, 2025, the Arctic stratosphere is much too hot for polar stratospheric clouds. | more data.
Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for noctilucent clouds has begin. First reports of the electric-blue clouds came from Russia on May 28, 2025. Since then, the clouds have spread to lower latitudes with one possible sighting in southern Italy on June 3, 2025.
Above: June 17, 2025, in Poland
"How exciting to observe noctilucent clouds," says photographer of Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland. "Last night, for the first time this year, a large and bright display was visible. Wave III structures dominated. You could say: finally, the time has come! "
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts |
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Updated at: 2025 Jun 21 2200 UTC
FLARE |
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
CLASS M |
55
% |
55
% |
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: 2025 Jun 21 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
20
% |
30
% |
MINOR |
05
% |
10
% |
SEVERE |
01
% |
01
% |
High latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
15
% |
15
% |
MINOR |
30
% |
25
% |
SEVERE |
25
% |
40
% |
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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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EQUATORIAL PLASMA BUBBLES: Earth's ionosphere is a bit like Swiss cheese. It contains holes called "equatorial plasma bubbles." They are tens to hundreds of kilometers wide, yet invisible to the human eye. New research published in the journal Space Weather explains how machines can be trained to detect these bubbles in optical images of airglow. The technique could lead to space weather alerts for big or strangely-shaped bubbles, which can disrupt GPS navigation.
TITAN'S SHADOW GLIDES ACROSS SATURN: Saturn is putting on a rare and subtle show: Titan’s shadow is transiting across the planet’s cloud tops, and we're squarely in the middle of the season to see it. On June 16th, Robert Lunsford of El Cajon, California, photographed one of these events:
"This photo was captured in infrared light to enhance the sharpness," Lunsford says. "Seeing was 4 out of 10, but still better than the last transit on May 31st." His photo shows the giant planet's rings and cloud bands with the crisp black round shadow of Titan--Saturn’s strangely-Earthlike moon--drifting across its face.
Titan shadow transits are rare. They happen only when the orbits of Saturn’s moons are edge-on as seen from Earth, a geometry that occurs roughly every 15 years. That season has arrived. From May through early October 2025, backyard astronomers in the America's can witness Titan’s inky shadow.
Sky & Telescope's excellent article on this topic gives a timetable of future transits:
These transits are slow-moving and surprisingly photogenic. Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system, so it casts a shadow that’s darker and sharper than most observers expect.
The next transit is July 2nd. Saturn will rise over the Americas just after midnight, and be 1/3rd of the way up the sky when the shadow crosses the central meridian of Saturn's disk. Submit your photos here!
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
SILVER SAPPHIRE SPACE PENDANT: It has just returned from the edge of space: The Silver Sapphire Space Pendant. Using a cosmic ray research balloon, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere on June 19, 2025:
You can have it for $219.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped sapphire in the middle surrouunded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking necklace perfect for anniversaries and romantic birthdays.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry 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 Jun 20, 2025, the network reported 5 fireballs.
(5 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 June 22, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 HN6 |
2025-Jun-16 |
6.4 LD |
2.3 |
23 |
| 2025 MG |
2025-Jun-16 |
1.1 LD |
29.5 |
9 |
| 2025 MJ |
2025-Jun-16 |
12 LD |
8.3 |
39 |
| 2025 MC |
2025-Jun-17 |
0.5 LD |
8.6 |
7 |
| 2000 LF3 |
2025-Jun-17 |
18.9 LD |
14.5 |
169 |
| 2023 XU2 |
2025-Jun-18 |
11.1 LD |
15.6 |
32 |
| 2025 MB |
2025-Jun-18 |
0.4 LD |
7.6 |
4 |
| 2025 MA |
2025-Jun-18 |
2.6 LD |
9.2 |
19 |
| 2025 KT6 |
2025-Jun-19 |
7 LD |
9.2 |
70 |
| 2025 MK |
2025-Jun-21 |
14.6 LD |
12.3 |
28 |
| 2025 MR |
2025-Jun-21 |
5 LD |
10.8 |
44 |
| 2025 LC1 |
2025-Jun-21 |
10.8 LD |
8 |
32 |
| 2025 MZ |
2025-Jun-22 |
2.2 LD |
14 |
25 |
| 2003 AY2 |
2025-Jun-22 |
14.2 LD |
15.9 |
386 |
| 2025 MP |
2025-Jun-23 |
8 LD |
14.6 |
37 |
| 2025 LT |
2025-Jun-23 |
3.4 LD |
14.5 |
48 |
| 2025 MB1 |
2025-Jun-24 |
11.2 LD |
12 |
43 |
| 2014 DH |
2025-Jun-28 |
17.1 LD |
12.1 |
17 |
| 2025 ML |
2025-Jun-28 |
6.6 LD |
11.6 |
26 |
| 2025 MM |
2025-Jul-01 |
5.4 LD |
10.7 |
39 |
| 2025 MO |
2025-Jul-07 |
6.7 LD |
4.6 |
9 |
| 2019 JM |
2025-Jul-09 |
16.6 LD |
6.9 |
14 |
| 2019 NW5 |
2025-Jul-09 |
15.2 LD |
16.5 |
65 |
| 2005 VO5 |
2025-Jul-11 |
15.9 LD |
14.4 |
382 |
| 2025 MD1 |
2025-Jul-11 |
18 LD |
8.9 |
46 |
| 2025 MG1 |
2025-Jul-12 |
13.2 LD |
7.2 |
41 |
| 2022 YS5 |
2025-Jul-17 |
17.4 LD |
6.1 |
38 |
| 2018 BY6 |
2025-Jul-19 |
13.7 LD |
7.4 |
69 |
| 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 |
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. |
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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. |
| |
from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
the
underlying science of space weather |
 |
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. |
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