| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 4.00 unsettled 24-hr max: Kp= 5.00 storm explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 7.21 nT Bz: 2.82 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 15 Jan 23 There are no significant coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The southern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds has begun. NASA's AIM spacecraft detected the first electric-blue puffs over Antarctica on Dec. 1st. Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Jan15 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Jan 15 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 55 % | 55 % | CLASS X | 15 % | 15 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2023 Jan 15 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 01 % | 01 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 20 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora tour guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too! | | | GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A minor G1-class geomagnetic storm is in progress on Jan. 15th as Earth passes through the magnetized wake of a stealthy CME, which arrived almost 2 days ago. The CME was embedded inside a co-moving solar wind stream, hiding some of its usual signatures. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. SOLAR FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): A twist of dark plasma left the sun on Jan. 14th, propelled by a double-dip M4-class solar flare in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR3182: The debris carved a spiraling path through the sun's atmosphere, a blender-like process that hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. It is the bright cloud emerging at the 5 o'clock position in this coronagraph movie from SOHO. NOAA analysts say the CME could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 19th. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SO. MANY. SUNSPOTS. This morning in the Netherlands, Jan Koeman looked at the sun through his safely-filtered telescope, and this is what he saw: "I can't remember having seen so many sunspots together through the eyepiece of my Celestron C8 in the last 10 years," says Koeman. "Amazing sight! It is winter in the Netherlands, that means plenty clouds and a sun low above the hedge in my backyard. But the sunspots were peeping through the clouds!" Indeed, the sunspot number is high. If solar activity continues apace for the rest of January, the monthly sunspot number will reach a 20-year high. And Solar Maximum is still ~2 years away. Contrary to predictions, Cycle 25 is shaping up to be a good one, after all. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. more images: from Martin Wise of Trenton, Florida; from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from Pepe Manteca of Begues, Catalunya, Spain; from the Association Astronomique de l'Indre of Le Poinçonnet, Centre-Val de Loire - France; from Dr. J. Wayne Wooten of Pensacola, Florida Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter VALENTINE'S CRYSTAL BEAR AND ROSE: Valentine's Day is coming. Looking for a far-out gift? This Crystal Bear and Rose flew to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon on Dec. 17th: You can have it for $129.95. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space bears to support their high-altitude ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the ursine astronaut in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space 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 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 Jan 15, 2023, 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 January 15, 2023 there were 2324 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2023 AO | 2023-Jan-10 | 16.9 LD | 12.2 | 29 | 2023 AP | 2023-Jan-11 | 4.9 LD | 19.9 | 73 | 2023 AS | 2023-Jan-11 | 1.5 LD | 6.3 | 11 | 2023 AN | 2023-Jan-12 | 1.4 LD | 14.8 | 9 | 2022 YD5 | 2023-Jan-12 | 8.3 LD | 10.6 | 49 | 2023 AC1 | 2023-Jan-12 | 0.6 LD | 14 | 6 | 2023 AR | 2023-Jan-12 | 3.6 LD | 30.1 | 35 | 2023 AV | 2023-Jan-12 | 0 LD | 15 | 3 | 2022 YZ2 | 2023-Jan-12 | 16.6 LD | 6.5 | 73 | 2022 YS5 | 2023-Jan-13 | 15.6 LD | 6 | 41 | 2014 LJ | 2023-Jan-14 | 4.8 LD | 3.5 | 7 | 2022 YH3 | 2023-Jan-14 | 19 LD | 16.3 | 95 | 2023 AK | 2023-Jan-15 | 4 LD | 11.2 | 10 | 2023 AH | 2023-Jan-15 | 1.8 LD | 4.8 | 7 | 2023 AX | 2023-Jan-16 | 4.4 LD | 3.9 | 9 | 2012 BV13 | 2023-Jan-16 | 12.2 LD | 6.7 | 134 | 2023 AQ | 2023-Jan-17 | 10.9 LD | 25 | 102 | 2023 AT | 2023-Jan-20 | 11.5 LD | 7.2 | 13 | 2020 BP | 2023-Jan-20 | 5.2 LD | 16.9 | 26 | 2023 AE1 | 2023-Jan-22 | 3.8 LD | 5.5 | 13 | 2019 BO2 | 2023-Jan-24 | 12.1 LD | 16.2 | 21 | 2019 BZ4 | 2023-Jan-24 | 16.5 LD | 5.6 | 20 | 2020 BZ14 | 2023-Jan-26 | 8.8 LD | 6.7 | 54 | 2022 SO113 | 2023-Jan-29 | 10.5 LD | 3.5 | 73 | 2017 DU34 | 2023-Feb-02 | 13.3 LD | 11.2 | 16 | 367789 | 2023-Feb-03 | 4.7 LD | 9.9 | 149 | 2020 OO1 | 2023-Feb-04 | 4.8 LD | 7.7 | 19 | 2022 YO6 | 2023-Feb-06 | 12.1 LD | 13.4 | 181 | 2022 CX1 | 2023-Feb-09 | 17.4 LD | 13.2 | 14 | 2021 EP4 | 2023-Feb-13 | 19 LD | 6.1 | 5 | 199145 | 2023-Feb-16 | 12 LD | 24.6 | 756 | 2022 RG | 2023-Feb-16 | 8.2 LD | 3 | 24 | 2020 DG4 | 2023-Feb-17 | 1.4 LD | 6.9 | 8 | 2020 CX1 | 2023-Feb-19 | 17.4 LD | 7.7 | 53 | 37638 | 2023-Feb-21 | 17 LD | 11.1 | 495 | 2012 DK31 | 2023-Feb-27 | 12.6 LD | 15.5 | 148 | 2006 BE55 | 2023-Feb-28 | 9.4 LD | 13.3 | 148 | 2021 QW | 2023-Mar-03 | 13.9 LD | 12.1 | 79 | 2017 BM123 | 2023-Mar-03 | 12.1 LD | 7.8 | 62 | 2007 ED125 | 2023-Mar-03 | 11.7 LD | 13.1 | 224 | 2015 EG | 2023-Mar-04 | 13.9 LD | 10.6 | 27 | 535844 | 2023-Mar-07 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 150 | 2020 FQ | 2023-Mar-09 | 14 LD | 6.3 | 13 | 2020 FV4 | 2023-Mar-13 | 17.6 LD | 8.2 | 30 | 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 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-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. | 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 | | 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 | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | 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. 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