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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 364.9 km/sec
density: 1.54 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: M1
1931 UT May21
24-hr: M1
1931 UT May21
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT
Daily Sun: 21 May 24
Expand: labels | no labels | Carrington
Sunspots AR3679 and 85 have 'beta-gamma' magnetic fields that harbor energy for possible M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 124
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 21 May 2024

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2024 total: 0 days (0%)
2023 total: 0 days (0%)
2022 total: 1 day (<1%)
2021 total: 64 days (18%)
2020 total: 208 days (57%)
2019 total: 281 days (77%)
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 21 May 2024


Thermosphere Climate Index
today: 27.73x1010 W Hot
Max: 49.4
x1010 W Hot (10/1957)
Min: 2.05
x1010 W Cold (02/2009)
explanation | more data: gfx, txt
Updated 20 May 2024

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 200 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 21 May 2024

Cosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining--a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays.

Oulu Neutron Counts

Percentages of the Space Age average:
today: -6.4% Low
48-hr change: +0.9%
Max: +11.7% Very High
(12/2009)
Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991)
explanation | more data
Updated 21 May 2024 @ 0700 UT

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1.67 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3.00
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.57 nT
Bz: -1.90 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT
Coronal Holes: 21 May 24

There are no equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun.
Credit: SDO/AIA

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 May 21, 2024, the Arctic stratosphere is much too warm for Type II polar stratospheric clouds. | more data.

Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for NLCs is over. The first clouds were detected inside the Antarctic Circle on Dec. 4, 2023, by the NOAA 21 satellite. The same satellite detected the last cloud on Feb. 21, 2024. Daily maps are now blank:

noctilucent clouds
Updated: Feb 22, 2024

An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). Now that the southern season has ended, attention turns to the northern hemisphere. The first NLCs should appear inside the Arctic Circle in mid to late May.

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2024 May 21 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
55 %
55 %
CLASS X
10 %
10 %
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 May 21 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
25 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
15 %
MINOR
30 %
25 %
SEVERE
30 %
25 %
 
Tuesday, May. 21, 2024
What's up in space
       
 

This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being.

 

FARSIDE CME TARGETS VENUS: Giant sunspot AR3664 is probably still active on the farside of the sun. We know because yesterday it (or a companion sunspot) hurled a bright full-halo CME into space. According to a NASA model, the storm cloud will make a direct hit on Venus today, potentially stripping away a small amount of that planet's atmosphere. CME impact alerts: SMS Text

MORE AURORAS IN AFRICA: For the first time in more than 30 years, Spaceweather.com has received photos of auroras in Africa. They appeared during the historic geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. The latest submissions come from Tivoli Astro Farm in Namibia where Richard Payne photographed the display:

"We could see the auroras with the naked eye," says Payne. "Visually, it was a deep red and very large--about 45 degrees vertical and 135 degrees horizontal." Another guest at the farm, Georg Woeber, also saw the sky turn red. "It was amazing to see this happen from the Tropic of Capricorn (23° S)," says Woeber.

"This is certainly exceptional," says Hisashi Hayakawa, a space weather researcher at Japan’s Nagoya University. "To my knowledge, these are the first auroras in Namibia since 1989."

The lights were also seen from the island of Mauritius east of Madagascar (20.3° S):

"I couldn't believe my eye!" reports Eric Villars, who was hiking up a mountain near the island's southwest coast. "It was around 04:30 in the morning on the 11th of May. I first saw some pink lights in the sky and thought it was the lights from sunrise--then I realised it was the Southern Lights! I never thought we could see those lights in Mauritius."

The display was also photographed from Namibia's Etosha National Park (18.9° S), from Farm Hakos near Windhoek, Namibia (22.5° S), and from a ship off the coast of Capetown, South Africa (32° S). Taken together, these sightings help confirm that May 10th was a "Great Storm" with one of the most widespread auroral displays of the past 500 years.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter

18K GOLD TOTAL ECLIPSE PENDANT: This pendant has touched the shadow of the Moon. On April 8, 2024, during a total eclipse of the sun in Texas, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Floating more than 118,110 feet high, the locket spent 3 minutes and 45 seconds wrapped in lunar shadow:

You can have it for $199.95. The 18K gold-plated locket is inscribed with the words "I love you to the Moon and back," and opens to hold a personal photo or other small item. It comes with a greeting card showing the locket in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space during the total eclipse.

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


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free:
Spaceweather.com Newsletter


Realtime Space Weather 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 May 20, 2024, the network reported 10 fireballs.
(9 sporadics, 1 eta Aquarid)

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 May 21, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2024 JQ16
2024-May-16
7 LD
6.1
15
2024 JG17
2024-May-17
4.8 LD
7.9
12
2024 JT17
2024-May-17
9.6 LD
7.6
24
2024 JG6
2024-May-17
11.2 LD
7.4
18
2022 WN2
2024-May-17
13.7 LD
5.5
6
2024 JQ17
2024-May-17
10.2 LD
9.3
26
2024 JG8
2024-May-17
6.2 LD
6.1
12
2024 JQ1
2024-May-18
5.7 LD
3
14
2024 JK8
2024-May-19
6 LD
9.8
16
2024 JD1
2024-May-20
19 LD
5.5
27
2015 WO1
2024-May-20
7.4 LD
15.6
86
2024 JP12
2024-May-21
11 LD
6.3
19
2024 JZ17
2024-May-21
6.6 LD
10.3
23
2024 KC
2024-May-21
4.3 LD
4.6
7
2019 VB5
2024-May-21
7.8 LD
6.3
2
2024 JG15
2024-May-22
6.6 LD
10.8
63
2024 JZ6
2024-May-23
14.6 LD
13.8
258
2024 HP
2024-May-23
15.5 LD
7.7
194
2024 JX14
2024-May-23
16.4 LD
6.2
27
2024 HP2
2024-May-25
5.8 LD
2.3
20
2024 JY1
2024-May-26
17.5 LD
10.3
54
2024 JO16
2024-May-27
8 LD
8.8
20
2008 LD
2024-May-28
7.7 LD
4.5
6
2024 JV17
2024-May-28
17.3 LD
8.4
46
2021 LV
2024-May-29
12 LD
15.5
9
2024 JG
2024-May-29
8.7 LD
7.4
29
2024 JA3
2024-May-30
6.2 LD
8.5
36
2008 XH
2024-May-31
13.8 LD
14.7
102
2024 JP1
2024-Jun-01
18.5 LD
4.7
25
2024 JC1
2024-Jun-01
15.1 LD
4.8
32
1998 KY26
2024-Jun-01
12 LD
5.3
25
2016 JC6
2024-Jun-01
19.9 LD
7.1
188
2024 JR17
2024-Jun-05
19.4 LD
14.6
87
2008 YN2
2024-Jun-05
10.5 LD
7.7
20
2021 LW3
2024-Jun-06
9.7 LD
9.8
86
2024 CR9
2024-Jun-11
19.2 LD
7.4
447
2022 XC1
2024-Jun-12
16.5 LD
6.5
21
2022 WW11
2024-Jun-17
19.7 LD
14.4
15
2019 NJ
2024-Jun-27
17.2 LD
10.1
66
415029
2024-Jun-27
17.3 LD
25.9
2304
2022 MM1
2024-Jun-28
7.8 LD
10.9
39
2010 XN
2024-Jun-28
14.1 LD
11.3
52
2022 HD1
2024-Jun-29
17.3 LD
7.2
63
2017 MB3
2024-Jun-30
5 LD
6.5
30
2022 BY39
2024-Jul-02
13.2 LD
3
4
2022 YS5
2024-Jul-11
11 LD
5.8
38
2024 BY15
2024-Jul-16
16.2 LD
0.7
16
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.

  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.
SolarMonitor.org
  information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary
Starlink Satellite Statistics
  current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics.
The Aerospace Corporation
  Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries
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
Live Aurora Webcam
  from Lights over Lapland
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather

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