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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 531.2 km/sec
density: 3.2 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A8
2139 UT Sep04
24-hr: A8
2139 UT Sep04
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 04 Sep 19
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 04 Sep 2019

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 1 day
2019 total: 170 days (69%)
2018 total: 221 days (61%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)
2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
2008 total: 268 days (73%)
2007 total: 152 days (42%)
2006 total: 70 days (19%)

Updated 04 Sep 2019


Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 3.94
x1010 W Cold
Max: 49.4
x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05
x1010 W Cold (02/2009)
explanation | more data: gfx, txt
Updated 04 Sep 2019

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 69 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 04 Sep 2019

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.9 nT
Bz: 0.4 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
Coronal Holes: 04 Sep 19


Solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole could reach Earth on Sept. 6-7.
Credit: SDO/AIA

Noctilucent Clouds The northern season for noctilucent clouds is about to end. NASA's AIM spacecraft is still showing a small number of electric-blue clouds around the Arctic Circle.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 09-03-2019 13:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2019 Sep 04 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: 2019 Sep 04 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
20 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
20 %
25 %
 
Wednesday, Sep. 4, 2019
What's up in space
       
 

Special Offer: SAVE 600nok per person. Book a combination aurora borealis chase and scenic day tour during the months of September, October or November 2019 for the special price of 1800 kr. Check Marianne's webpage for details!

 

ARCTIC AURORA WATCH: A southern hole in the sun's atmosphere is turning to face Earth. The emerging stream of solar wind could graze our planet's magnetic field on Sept. 7th, causing geomagnetic unrest and auroras around the Arctic Circle. At this time of year, auroras can mix with polar twilight to form uniquely beautiful photo-ops. Stay tuned. Aurora alerts: SMS Text

TRIPLE-PLANET CONJUNCTION: Venus, Mars, and Mercury are having a spectacular conjunction today. Don't bother looking, though. They have gathered together in the noontime sky only degrees away from the glaring sun. Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are recording the show:

Using an opaque disk to block the sun's glare, SOHO coronagraphs reveal nearby stars and planets otherwise invisible to the human eye. Today's image shows Venus 5.9 degrees from the sun, Mercury 1.7 degrees from the sun and Mars .... where's Mars? The Red Planet is only 1.2 degrees from the sun, so it is located behind the opaque disk. Soon it will pop into view again. Join SOHO for a ringside seat.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter

BE ALERT FOR PURPLE SUNSETS: Tonight when the sun goes down, step outside into the twilight. You might find yourself surrounded by purple. That's what happened to Piotr Wieczorek of Jeziory Małe, Poland, on August 31st:

"The purple was everywhere," says Wieczorek, "even reflected in the water of the lake."

If this happens to you, blame a volcano. This summer, two volcanoes have spewed sulfurous gas into the stratosphere: the Raikoke volcano in the Kirul Islands (June 22nd) and the Ulawun volcano in New Guinea (Aug. 3rd). Fine volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere scatter blue light which, when mixed with ordinary sunset red, produces a purple hue.

Sky watchers have been seeing purple sunsets ever since Raikoke erupted. The volcanic gas appears to be patchily distributed, bringing strange sunsets on some nights, but not all. Clear air, lack of clouds, and country settings improves their visibility.

Realtime Volcanic Sunset Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter
  

THE SPACE PEARL: It's the first pearl in the stratosphere. On Aug. 19, 2019, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the edge of space, 104,002 ft high. This sterling silver pearl necklace went along for the ride:

You can have it for $169.95. The students are selling these pearls to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each cultured "space pearl" comes with greeting card showing the necklace in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again. These make great birthday and Christmas gifts.

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter
  

  All Sky Fireball Network
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 Sep. 4, 2019, the network reported 23 fireballs.
(22 sporadics, 1 alpha Aurigid)

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]

  Near Earth Asteroids
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 September 4, 2019 there were 1983 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2019 QR3
2019-Aug-30
5.7 LD
11.4
13
2019 QU4
2019-Aug-30
4.6 LD
8.4
39
2019 QP1
2019-Aug-31
10.5 LD
8.9
18
2019 QD4
2019-Aug-31
5.9 LD
22.5
23
2019 QY5
2019-Aug-31
10.8 LD
10.1
25
2019 QA5
2019-Sep-02
5.7 LD
13.5
21
2019 QX1
2019-Sep-02
18.9 LD
16.8
30
2019 OF2
2019-Sep-03
18.3 LD
10.7
53
2018 DE1
2019-Sep-03
12.7 LD
6.6
28
2019 QX3
2019-Sep-04
11.2 LD
17.8
32
2019 QE1
2019-Sep-05
13.2 LD
6.6
34
2019 GT3
2019-Sep-06
19.5 LD
13.6
228
2019 RA
2019-Sep-07
4.5 LD
5.7
30
2019 QZ
2019-Sep-08
15.7 LD
4.3
21
2019 QZ3
2019-Sep-09
9.7 LD
7.5
41
2019 QY4
2019-Sep-10
2.5 LD
7.8
9
2010 RM82
2019-Sep-13
18.2 LD
14.6
23
2013 CV83
2019-Sep-13
16.1 LD
13.1
62
504800
2019-Sep-14
13.9 LD
14.4
155
467317
2019-Sep-14
13.9 LD
6.4
389
2019 JF1
2019-Sep-16
11.2 LD
4.3
62
2018 FU1
2019-Sep-16
18.4 LD
4.7
16
2019 RC
2019-Sep-16
17.5 LD
15.1
162
2017 SL16
2019-Sep-21
7.9 LD
6.5
25
2017 SM21
2019-Sep-21
11.5 LD
9.6
20
2019 QZ1
2019-Sep-22
12.5 LD
8.2
77
523934
2019-Sep-24
10.9 LD
22.3
257
2019 QY3
2019-Sep-26
13.9 LD
8.4
41
2017 KP27
2019-Sep-26
6.2 LD
4.8
25
2006 QV89
2019-Sep-27
18.1 LD
4.1
31
2018 FK5
2019-Oct-01
13.3 LD
10.5
8
2018 LG4
2019-Oct-02
13.8 LD
8.1
12
2017 TJ4
2019-Oct-05
13.5 LD
8.9
32
162082
2019-Oct-25
16.2 LD
11.2
589
2017 TG5
2019-Oct-25
14.4 LD
11.9
34
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

SOMETHING NEW! We have developed a new predictive model of aviation radiation. It's called E-RAD--short for Empirical RADiation model. We are constantly flying radiation sensors onboard airplanes over the US and and around the world, so far collecting more than 22,000 gps-tagged radiation measurements. Using this unique dataset, we can predict the dosage on any flight over the USA with an error no worse than 15%.

E-RAD lets us do something new: Every day we monitor approximately 1400 flights criss-crossing the 10 busiest routes in the continental USA. Typically, this includes more than 80,000 passengers per day. E-RAD calculates the radiation exposure for every single flight.

The Hot Flights Table is a daily summary of these calculations. It shows the 5 charter flights with the highest dose rates; the 5 commercial flights with the highest dose rates; 5 commercial flights with near-average dose rates; and the 5 commercial flights with the lowest dose rates. Passengers typically experience dose rates that are 20 to 70 times higher than natural radiation at sea level.

To measure radiation on airplanes, we use the same sensors we fly to the stratosphere onboard Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloons: neutron bubble chambers and X-ray/gamma-ray Geiger tubes sensitive to energies between 10 keV and 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.

Column definitions: (1) The flight number; (2) The maximum dose rate during the flight, expressed in units of natural radiation at sea level; (3) The maximum altitude of the plane in feet above sea level; (4) Departure city; (5) Arrival city; (6) Duration of the flight.

SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: 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 18% since 2015:

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.

En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes:

In this plot, 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.

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.

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.

  Essential web links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
NOAA 27-Day Space Weather Forecasts
  fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong.
Aurora 30 min forecast
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
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