 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.5 nT
Bz: -2.5 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2351 UT Coronal Holes: 02 Aug 17 
Solar wind flowing from this broad coronal hole should reach Earth on August 5th Credit: NASA/SDO.  Noctilucent Clouds They're back! Images of noctilucent clouds from NASA's AIM spacecraft are available again. The spacecraft's orbit had recently changed, requiring a new way to point AIM's science instruments. This problem has now been solved, and "daily daisies" have returned to Spaceweather.com. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 08-01-2017 15:55:03 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2017 Aug 02 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 01 % | 01 % | 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: 2017 Aug 02 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 35 % | MINOR | 05 % | 35 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 20 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 05 % | MINOR | 20 % | 15 % | SEVERE | 10 % | 80 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | Lights Over lapland is excited to announce that Autumn Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today! | | | FACT CHECK: 2017 PERSEIDS THE GREATEST EVER? A viral news item is spreading around the Internet. It claims that the 2017 Perseid meteor shower will be the brightest in recorded human history. FALSE. This year's Perseid shower will be beautiful, but not the greatest ever. Get the full story from Snopes.com. IT'S BACK: Old sunspot AR2665 has returned, and it is a much-decayed version of its former self. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed AR2665 emerging over the sun's eastern limb on Aug. 2nd: 
The sunspot's primary dark core is only about 1/5th the size of the entire sunspot group in its early-July heyday. In fact, the region's dominant feature now is a sprawl of bright magnetic froth known as "plage." This type of magnetic structure does not typically give rise to flares. Despite the sunspot's apparent decline, it is notable that only 5 days ago AR2665 produced a significant farside CME. So there may be some explosive potential remaining in the sunspot's magnetic field.
Note: Per longstanding tradition, sunspots that travel around the backside of the sun receive a new name when they reappear. Old sunspot AR2665 is therefore provisionally re-numbered AR2670. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER IS BEGINNING: This week, Earth is entering a stream of debris from huge comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Specks of dusty debris hitting the top of Earth's atmosphere at 110,000 mph are burning up in the night sky, producing a spray of shooting stars from the constellation Perseus. On July 31st James W. Young photographed a green Perseid fireball skimming the coast off Cannon Beach in western Oregon: 
"The Needles (rock outcroppings) to the right are just south of Haystack Rock," says Young. "The fireball was a pleasant surprise!" In the last three nights (July 30-Aug. 1), NASA cameras have detected more than 2 dozen Perseid fireballs streaking over the USA. These numbers are small, however, compared to what is in store. Forecasters expect Perseid meteor rates to increase 10-fold as Earth plunges deeper into the comet debris stream. By the time the shower peaks on Aug. 11th-13th, sky watchers could see dozens of Perseids per hour despite the interfering glare of a bright gibbous Moon. Sprawl out in a moon shadow between midnight and dawn and enjoy the show! Sky maps: Aug. 11, 12, 13. Free: Meteor Alerts Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery SOLAR ECLIPSE VIEWING GLASSES: Get ready for the Great American Solar Eclipse on Aug. 21st! Earth to Sky's safe solar glasses will allow you to view any phase of the upcoming eclipse without fear of damage to your eyes. The Family Pack includes 3 pairs of glasses and costs only $29.95. And there's a bonus. They have all been to the edge of space: 
On June 23, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of solar glasses to the stratosphere onboard a high-altitude space weather balloon. The glasses ascended more than 95,000 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California before parachuting back to Earth.
Each Family Pack of solar eclipse glasses comes with a unique gift card showing the glasses floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that these items have been to the edge of space and back again. More items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network and hands-on STEM education. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery 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 Aug. 2, 2017, the network reported 24 fireballs.
(11 Perseids, 11 sporadics, 2 alpha Capricornids)  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 August 2, 2017 there were 1803 potentially hazardous asteroids.  | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2011 CC22 | 2017-Aug-04 | 15.5 LD | 18.4 | 186 | | 2017 NB7 | 2017-Aug-06 | 6.9 LD | 6 | 80 | | 2017 OF7 | 2017-Aug-10 | 19.2 LD | 8.1 | 88 | | 2014 OA339 | 2017-Aug-13 | 12.3 LD | 10 | 47 | | 3122 | 2017-Sep-01 | 18.5 LD | 13.5 | 5376 | | 2014 RC | 2017-Sep-11 | 15.1 LD | 8.9 | 16 | | 1989 VB | 2017-Sep-29 | 7.9 LD | 6.3 | 408 | Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here: 
This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California. What is this all about? Approximately 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 radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015: 
Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation. 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. The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-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 Reneger and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today. | | 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. | | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | | a proud supporter of science education and Spaceweather.com | | | 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 |  | Beautyz for top beauty products reviews and their buying guides | | Reviews here can help you to pick up best memory foam mattresses. | | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | |  | | |  | ©2017 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |
