 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.5 nT
Bz: -3.3 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2348 UT Coronal Holes: 02 Nov 17 
Solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole is brushing against Earth's magnetic field causing slightly elevated levels of geomagnetic activity. Credit: NASA/SDO.  Noctilucent Clouds Latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft show that the 2017 northern summer season for noctilucent clouds has finished. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 09-03-2017 01:55:03 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2017 Nov 01 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 Nov 01 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 25 % | 25 % | MINOR | 10 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 20 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 20 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | All-inclusive Northern Lights trips in Tromsø, Norway. Small groups, big experiences! Highly qualified guides ensure unique and unforgettable adventures with a personal touch. Visit Explore the Arctic | | | SOLAR WIND TO GRAZE EARTH: A stream of solar wind flowing from a hole in the sun's atmosphere is expected to graze Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 2-3, passing mainly to the south of our planet. The glancing pressure of the gaseous stream could cause magnetic unrest around the poles. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras mixed with bright moonlight. Free: Aurora Alerts. SOLAR MINIMUM RETURNS: Today the sunspot number is zero as the sun resumes its transition to Solar Minimum. Images from NASA's Dynamics Observatory show no dark cores on the face of the sun: 
This development continues a years-long trend of decreasing sunspot numbers -- with a notable interruption in September 2017, which brought a surprising outburst of large sunspots and intense solar flares. The disappearance of sunspots signals a weakening of the sun's magnetic field and a change in the character of space weather. During Solar Minimum, space weather is dominated by solar wind streams and cosmic rays, not sunspots and solar flares. Bonus: Solar Minimum auroras are gorgeous. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery MOON HALO ALERT: The Moon is waxing full, and there's an autumnal chill in the air. That means it's time to be alert for icy Moon halos. Paul Martini photographed this specimen from Bluff, Utah, on Oct. 30th: 
Bluff is the gateway to Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and the Valley of the Gods, where wind- and rain-sculpted sandstone formations jut beautifully out of the ground, framed in Martini's photo by the pale halo.
Moon halos are created by ice crystals in high clouds, which catch rays of moonlight and bend them into a 22o ring. Bright full Moons are great at making these halos--and the next full Moon is only days away. After sunset on Nov. 3rd, the Beaver Moon will rise in the east, making halos and other atmospheric figures in the night sky. Submit your photos here. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery THIS WATCH FLEW TO SPACE ... AND KEPT ON TICKING: On Aug. 21, 2017, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. They soared into the stratosphere, photographing the shadow of the Moon more than 100,000 feet above Earth's surface. As a fundraiser, one of the balloons carried this wristwatch: 
With the sun, Earth, and Moon perfectly aligned, the watch entered the space-cold shadow of the Moon … and kept on ticking! Watch the video. It survived temperatures lower than -49 C and cosmic ray dose rates more than 100 times sea level. You can have one for $99.95. Each timepiece comes with a unique gift card showing the watch floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere and touching the shadow of the Moon. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
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 Nov. 2, 2017, the network reported 14 fireballs.
(11 sporadics, 1 omicron Eridanid, 1 Orionid, 1 Northern Taurid)  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 November 2, 2017 there were 1853 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2017 UB6 | 2017-Oct-28 | 12.4 LD | 7.5 | 13 | | 2017 UK6 | 2017-Oct-28 | 11.9 LD | 14.7 | 59 | | 2017 UP7 | 2017-Oct-28 | 12.8 LD | 12.8 | 23 | | 2017 UL6 | 2017-Oct-28 | 0.2 LD | 8 | 1 | | 2017 UV7 | 2017-Oct-29 | 6.1 LD | 12.5 | 18 | | 2017 UA6 | 2017-Oct-29 | 4 LD | 15 | 26 | | 2017 UL8 | 2017-Oct-30 | 1.2 LD | 10.5 | 8 | | 2017 UK8 | 2017-Oct-30 | 0.6 LD | 14.1 | 8 | | 2017 UL43 | 2017-Oct-30 | 14.2 LD | 10.4 | 18 | | 2017 UJ6 | 2017-Oct-30 | 5.5 LD | 11.3 | 18 | | 2017 UO43 | 2017-Oct-31 | 6.6 LD | 5.7 | 9 | | 2017 TZ4 | 2017-Oct-31 | 19.3 LD | 13.1 | 96 | | 2003 UV11 | 2017-Oct-31 | 15 LD | 24.5 | 447 | | 2017 UP6 | 2017-Oct-31 | 15.1 LD | 11.6 | 22 | | 2017 UO2 | 2017-Oct-31 | 11 LD | 8.7 | 22 | | 2017 UD43 | 2017-Nov-01 | 4.7 LD | 8.8 | 7 | | 2017 UL44 | 2017-Nov-03 | 13.3 LD | 15.4 | 64 | | 2017 UX42 | 2017-Nov-05 | 10.5 LD | 2.6 | 7 | | 2017 US7 | 2017-Nov-05 | 7.1 LD | 8.8 | 13 | | 2017 UJ7 | 2017-Nov-05 | 16.8 LD | 13 | 28 | | 2017 UJ43 | 2017-Nov-05 | 4.6 LD | 7.3 | 9 | | 2013 BD74 | 2017-Nov-06 | 10.6 LD | 9 | 51 | | 2017 TZ3 | 2017-Nov-09 | 10.3 LD | 8.7 | 39 | | 444584 | 2017-Nov-17 | 8.7 LD | 14.8 | 324 | | 2008 WM61 | 2017-Dec-03 | 3.8 LD | 4.7 | 16 | | 2015 XX169 | 2017-Dec-14 | 9.7 LD | 6.3 | 11 | | 2011 YD29 | 2017-Dec-19 | 17.6 LD | 7.7 | 20 | | 2006 XY | 2017-Dec-20 | 6.5 LD | 5 | 56 | | 2017 TS3 | 2017-Dec-22 | 18.2 LD | 10.2 | 134 | | 418849 | 2017-Dec-22 | 15.3 LD | 17.4 | 257 | | 2015 YQ1 | 2017-Dec-22 | 17.3 LD | 11.1 | 9 | | 2017 QL33 | 2017-Dec-30 | 13.3 LD | 8.2 | 191 | 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 | | | 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 |  | 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. | |
