| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 1 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 4.2 nT Bz: -1.2 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2347 UT Coronal Holes: 10 Aug 18 Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could reach Earth on Aug.12th. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The season for noctilucent clouds in he northern hemisphere is underway. Check here daily for the latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 08-10-2018 13:55:02 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2018 Aug 10 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: 2018 Aug 10 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 15 % | MINOR | 01 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 10 % | 25 % | | | | | | | | | | | | 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 ECLIPSE THIS WEEKEND: The Moon is about to take a bite out of the sun. On Saturday, August 11th, there will be a partial solar eclipse visible from locations around the Arctic Circle and across much of Asia. During the 3+ hour event, as much as 73% of the solar disk will be covered. Selected cities in the eclipse zone include Moscow (2.1% coverage), Oslo (4.8%), Raykjavik (20%), Tromso (29%), and Seoul (35%). Get ready: observing tips, movie, photo gallery A PERSEID IN THE PLEIADES: The Perseid meteor shower is intensifying as Earth moves deeper into the debris stream of giant comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Observers with the International Meteor Organization are reporting 20 to 30 meteors per hour from dark sky sites. "Last night, I saw a lucky Perseid strike right through the heart of the Pleiades," says Pierre Girard of Milton Keynes, UK: The rainbow-colored meteor was about 3rd magnitude--that is, similar in brightness to the stars of the Seven Sisters. Some Perseids are much brighter than that. On Aug. 9th, NASA's network of all-sky meteor cameras recorded 15 Perseid fireballs over the USA. Fireballs are meteors more luminous than Venus that can even cast shadows on a very dark night. The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak this weekend with 100 or more meteors per hour. The best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise on Sunday, August 12th, and again on Monday, August 13th. At those times, the shower's radiant will be high in the sky, spewing meteors in all directions. [sky map] Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS STILL GOING STRONG: Something unusual is happening in Earth's upper atmosphere. Normally in August, summertime noctilucent clouds (NLCs) begin to fade as weather conditions in the mesosphere disfavor the formation of meteor-seeded ice crystals. This August, however, NLCs are going strong. Just this morning, Gordon Mackie witnessed a bright display over Caithness, Scotland: "It was good to see NLCs shining brightly above Thurso Bay before their observing season comes to a close for this year," says Mackie. "They were so mesmerising I forgot to keep a lookout for Perseid meteors." So far in August 2018, noctilucent clouds are being reported to Spaceweather.com four times as often as during the same period in 2017. What's happening up there? It might be the solar cycle at work. Previous studies have shown that NLCs sometimes intensify during solar minimum. During solar minimum, the sun's extreme UV output decreases. This has two effects: (1) the upper atmosphere cools and (2) the upper atmosphere keeps more of its water molecules, which are normally split apart by UV rays. More water + less warmth = more icy noctilucent clouds. If this is indeed what's happening, more NLCs may be in the offing as solar minimum continues to deepen in August 2018. Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery FLY ME TO THE MOONSTONE: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Nothing says "I love you" like a moonstone from the edge of space. On Jan 27th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this moonstone wrapped in a hand-crafted sterling silver Celtic love knot 35.1 km (115,158 feet) above Earth's surface: You can have it for $179.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. All sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education Realtime Space Weather 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. 10, 2018, the network reported 34 fireballs. (18 sporadics, 15 Perseids, 1 Northern delta Aquariid) 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 10, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2018 PR7 | 2018-Aug-06 | 1.4 LD | 4.3 | 7 | 2018 OZ | 2018-Aug-06 | 7 LD | 9.6 | 37 | 2018 PC | 2018-Aug-06 | 12.1 LD | 9.3 | 54 | 2018 PK9 | 2018-Aug-22 | 17 LD | 9 | 31 | 2018 PW7 | 2018-Aug-23 | 11.4 LD | 10.6 | 44 | 2018 PR9 | 2018-Aug-24 | 18.1 LD | 14 | 46 | 2018 LQ2 | 2018-Aug-27 | 9.4 LD | 1.5 | 39 | 2016 GK135 | 2018-Aug-28 | 16.8 LD | 2.8 | 9 | 2016 NF23 | 2018-Aug-29 | 13.3 LD | 9 | 93 | 1998 SD9 | 2018-Aug-29 | 4.2 LD | 10.7 | 51 | 2018 DE1 | 2018-Aug-30 | 15.2 LD | 6.5 | 28 | 2001 RQ17 | 2018-Sep-02 | 19.3 LD | 8.3 | 107 | 2015 FP118 | 2018-Sep-03 | 12.3 LD | 9.8 | 490 | 2017 SL16 | 2018-Sep-20 | 8.5 LD | 6.4 | 25 | 2018 EB | 2018-Oct-07 | 15.5 LD | 15.1 | 155 | 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 | | If you are a Youtuber and want to buy real Youtube views than try out Buyrealsocial.com for the best results possible! | | To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings. | | 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. | |