 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3.67 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3.67 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.07 nT
Bz: 4.02 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 16 Dec 24 
There are no coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: NOAA/GOES-16 | more data  Polar Stratospheric Clouds
Colorful Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops to a staggeringly low -85C. NASA's MERRA-2 climate model predicts when the air up there is cold enough: 
On Dec. 16, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is cold enough for Type I polar stratospheric clouds, and almost cold enough for Type II clouds. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is underway!. The first clouds were detected over Antarctica on Nov. 19, 2024. Here is the current NLC map from the NOAA 21 satellite.
Updated: Dec. 13, 2024
An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). In the daily map, above, each dot is a detected cloud. As the season progresses, these dots will multiply in number and shift in hue from blue to red as the brightness of the clouds intensifies.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2024 Dec 16 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 40 % | 30 % | CLASS X | 05 % | 05 % | Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2024 Dec 16 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 35 % | 20 % | MINOR | 15 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 30 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | | NEAR-MISS CMEs ARE COMING: Geomagnetic unrest is possible on Dec. 17th when one or more CMEs pass close to Earth. The near misses will probably fall short of sparking a full-fledged geomagnetic storm. Nevertheless, auroras could fill the Arctic Circle when the CMEs pass by. CME impact alerts: SMS Text POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS AT NIGHT: When the Arctic night of Abisko, Sweden, fills with glowing color, it's almost always the aurora borealis. Not so on the night of Dec. 12th. "The colors came from polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs)," reports Felix Feislachen, who photographed the "amazing" display: 
PSCs are a very rare type of cloud. They form in the Arctic stratosphere for a few days each year, usually near the winter solstice when the temperature drops to a staggeringly low -85 C. Sunlight touching the ice crystals inside PSCs cause them to blossom with pastel color. However, there was no sunlight behind these clouds. "The nearly full Moon did the trick," Feislachen explains. "Bright moonlight shined into the PSCs and caused the colors to appear." Feislachen is an aurora tour guide for Lights over Lapland, so naturally he kept taking pictures until he caught auroras and PSCs in the same frame: 
"This is my first full season as a guide," says Feislachen. "Abisko catches a lot of people off guard." These photos show why. The show may not be over. Although PSCs normally appear only a few times each winter, the current outbreak is already 6 days old. First noticed in Norway on Dec. 10th, PSCs were still being seen on Dec. 15th as far south as Scotland and England. Until further notice, Arctic sky watchers should remain alert for these rare clouds, night and day. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Dec 16, 2024, the network reported 3 fireballs.
(3 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 December 16, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2024 XL11 | 2024-Dec-11 | 3.1 LD | 11 | 6 | | 2024 XJ5 | 2024-Dec-11 | 19.8 LD | 10.9 | 27 | | 2024 XZ11 | 2024-Dec-11 | 12.3 LD | 10.6 | 23 | | 2018 XU3 | 2024-Dec-11 | 16.8 LD | 10.8 | 28 | | 2024 XK1 | 2024-Dec-11 | 4.9 LD | 7.5 | 10 | | 2024 WB14 | 2024-Dec-11 | 18 LD | 6.5 | 28 | | 2007 XB23 | 2024-Dec-11 | 2.3 LD | 4.7 | 14 | | 2024 XS16 | 2024-Dec-11 | 0.1 LD | 18.6 | 3 | | 2024 WP11 | 2024-Dec-12 | 15.6 LD | 8.6 | 22 | | 2024 XS | 2024-Dec-12 | 8.3 LD | 25.6 | 30 | | 2024 XF9 | 2024-Dec-12 | 2 LD | 6.5 | 9 | | 2024 WD18 | 2024-Dec-13 | 19.9 LD | 9 | 32 | | 2024 XW15 | 2024-Dec-13 | 17 LD | 11.6 | 66 | | 2024 XY18 | 2024-Dec-13 | 14.3 LD | 19.6 | 71 | | 2024 XC16 | 2024-Dec-13 | 13.8 LD | 20.7 | 32 | | 2024 XU9 | 2024-Dec-14 | 13.6 LD | 16.3 | 34 | | 2024 XB16 | 2024-Dec-15 | 5.5 LD | 7.8 | 15 | | 2024 XF4 | 2024-Dec-15 | 18.3 LD | 14.5 | 63 | | 2024 XY5 | 2024-Dec-16 | 9.1 LD | 4.8 | 23 | | 2024 XB6 | 2024-Dec-16 | 17.5 LD | 6.6 | 18 | | 2024 XV6 | 2024-Dec-16 | 17.5 LD | 10.7 | 11 | | 2024 XE16 | 2024-Dec-16 | 17.7 LD | 3.7 | 47 | | 2024 VE7 | 2024-Dec-16 | 7.3 LD | 8 | 45 | | 2022 YO1 | 2024-Dec-17 | 2 LD | 14.3 | 4 | | 2024 XR6 | 2024-Dec-17 | 15.3 LD | 5.6 | 16 | | 2024 XC17 | 2024-Dec-17 | 8.1 LD | 4.8 | 12 | | 2024 XS3 | 2024-Dec-18 | 8.7 LD | 10.5 | 27 | | 2020 XY4 | 2024-Dec-19 | 12.8 LD | 8.8 | 14 | | 2024 XN15 | 2024-Dec-21 | 9.9 LD | 9.7 | 19 | | 2024 XQ4 | 2024-Dec-21 | 2.8 LD | 13.2 | 16 | | 2024 XN1 | 2024-Dec-24 | 18.9 LD | 6.6 | 39 | | 2017 YD2 | 2024-Dec-27 | 18 LD | 9.9 | 6 | | 2024 AV2 | 2024-Dec-31 | 6.7 LD | 7.8 | 17 | | 2024 XP10 | 2025-Jan-02 | 19.8 LD | 8.4 | 39 | | 2021 AO4 | 2025-Jan-04 | 6.9 LD | 15.1 | 11 | | 2020 BC6 | 2025-Jan-05 | 9.6 LD | 22.2 | 248 | | 2024 BM1 | 2025-Jan-08 | 11.5 LD | 9.1 | 22 | | 2024 PT5 | 2025-Jan-09 | 4.7 LD | 1 | 12 | | 2023 OS3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 19.9 LD | 3.1 | 10 | | 2012 UK171 | 2025-Jan-11 | 10.7 LD | 6.4 | 46 | | 2023 OS | 2025-Jan-15 | 16.6 LD | 10.9 | 48 | | 2022 CE2 | 2025-Jan-16 | 11.1 LD | 13.3 | 120 | | 2022 OB5 | 2025-Jan-18 | 8.9 LD | 1.4 | 6 | | 2024 WY70 | 2025-Jan-18 | 16.5 LD | 10.2 | 261 | | 2022 BX6 | 2025-Jan-28 | 19.7 LD | 14.3 | 24 | | 2015 DJ155 | 2025-Jan-31 | 18.6 LD | 9.2 | 56 | | 2022 AV4 | 2025-Feb-03 | 16.8 LD | 3.4 | 25 | | 2018 RE3 | 2025-Feb-03 | 15.5 LD | 11.1 | 12 | | 2002 CC14 | 2025-Feb-04 | 8.4 LD | 12.7 | 39 | | 2016 CO248 | 2025-Feb-07 | 13.5 LD | 5.9 | 11 | | 2020 GZ2 | 2025-Feb-07 | 17.7 LD | 8.9 | 9 | | 2022 PK1 | 2025-Feb-07 | 15 LD | 11 | 33 | | 2012 PB20 | 2025-Feb-09 | 3.5 LD | 4.3 | 37 | 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 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-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. See also, all satellite statistics. | | | 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 |  | Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | |  | | |  | ©2021 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |
