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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 348.2 km/sec
density: 8.9 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2106 UT May31
24-hr: C1
2106 UT May31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 31 May 17
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 31 May 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 1 day
2017 total: 38 days (25%)
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%)

Updated 31 May 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 76 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 31 May 2017

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.9 nT
Bz: 2.2 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 31 May 17

Solar wind flowing from this minor coronal hole could reach Earth on June 2-3. Credit: NASA/SDO.
Noctilucent Clouds NASA's AIM spacecraft, which monitors NLCs from space, recent moved into a new orbit around Earth. Daily data are currently unavailable while the spacecraft's pointing settles. Polar images should resume in early June. Stay tuned!
Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated at: 02-24-2017 17:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2017 May 31 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
05 %
05 %
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: 2017 May 31 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
15 %
20 %
SEVERE
15 %
15 %
 
Wednesday, May. 31, 2017
What's up in space
       
 

Lights Over lapland is excited to announce that Autumn Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today!

 

SOLAR EXPLOSION MISSES EARTH: Yesterday, May 30th, a dark filament of magnetism tore through the sun's atmosphere. The explosion hurled a cloud of plasma into space, but the coronal mass ejection (CME) will not hit Earth. It is flying east of the sun-Earth line. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded this movie of the blast. Free: Aurora Alerts

NIGHT-GLOWING CLOUDS SIGHTED: Noctilucent cloud (NLC) season is underway.  Northern sky watchers are beginning to spot electric-blue tendrils of light creeping over the horizon at sunset. Adrien Mauduit photographed these specimens on May 26th from Ordrup, Sjælland, Denmark:

"They were visible until about 2 in the morning," says Mauduit. Follow-up reports of NLCs have been received from Latvia (May 27th) and Northern Ireland (May 31st).

NLCs are Earth's highest clouds. Seeded by meteoroids, they float at the edge of space more than 80 km above the planet's surface. The clouds are very cold and filled with tiny ice crystals. When sunbeams hit those crystals, they glow electric-blue.

Noctilucent clouds are a summertime phenomenon. In the northern hemisphere, they usually appear in late May, then blossom in June and July as ice crystals multiply in the mesosphere high overhead. Here is an example of fully developed NLCs photographed last summer in Sweden:


Photo credit: Ruslan Merzlyakov of Umeå, Sweden. August 7, 2016

Interestingly, NLCs haven't always been here. They first appeared in the 19th century after the eruption of super-volcano Krakatoa. At the time, people thought the clouds were caused by the eruption, but long after Krakatoa's ash settled, the clouds remained. In those days, NLCs were a polar phenomenon confined mainly to the Arctic. In recent years they have intensified and spread with sightings as far south as Utah and Colorado. Some researchers believe the intensification is a sign of climate change.

Observing tips: Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the sun has dipped 6o to 16o below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you may have spotted a noctilucent cloud.

Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery

CALIFORNIA AURORAS: Compared to many other photos of the May 28th geomagnetic storm, which were visually spectacular, this one might not seem noteworthy. Except for one thing: It was taken in California.

"I saw the magnetic storm alert at 11:00pm," says photographer Dan McBride. "When the K-index hit 7, I left my house and drove for 1 1/2 hours to the helipad at Big Hill Lookout, west of Lake Tahoe. I could barely see it, but after my first test shot I knew I had just caught purple pillars from California at latitude 38.8 degrees N."

Auroras in California are rare and remarkable. They are visible to the naked eye typically no more than a few times a decade. The May 28th display was even more remarkable considering the phase of the sunspot cycle: The sun is rapidly plunging toward Solar Minimum. Sunspots are scarce and solar flares are weak at best.  Nevertheless, we just experienced a strong geomagnetic storm. The CME that sparked auroras over California this weekend was hurled toward Earth by a seemingly minor magnetic reorganization in the sun's atmosphere.

And so space weather continues--no sunspots required. Free: Aurora Alerts

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

SPACE BEARS MAKE GOOD GRADUATION GIFTS: Around the USA, high school seniors are preparing to receive their diplomas. Nothing says "you're on your way up!" better than a graduation gift from the Edge of Space. On May 25th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a family of "graduation grizzlies" 27 km (90,000 feet) above Earth's surface:

Outfitted with space helmets and a diploma, the intrepid Ursidae survived cosmic rays, ultra-low temperatures, and the near-vacuum of the stratosphere. For $49.95 you can have one of these bears along with a unique Graduation card showing the bears floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. Buy one now.

Sales of the bears support student space weather research. In fact, the bears pictured above were hitchhiking on a payload equipped with radiation sensors. We send the sensors to the stratosphere every week to monitor increasing levels of cosmic rays. Visit the Earth to Sky store to support this crowd-funded research.

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


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery


  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. 31, 2017, 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]

  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 31, 2017 there were 1803 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2017 KK32
2017-May-26
8.9 LD
11.3
16
2017 CS
2017-May-29
8 LD
9.1
468
2017 KJ27
2017-May-30
6.1 LD
16.2
29
2017 KW31
2017-May-31
1.2 LD
10.8
17
418094
2017-Jun-01
8 LD
23.2
490
2017 KX4
2017-Jun-01
15.2 LD
9.4
47
2017 KJ3
2017-Jun-03
11.1 LD
11.3
47
2017 KJ5
2017-Jun-04
11.6 LD
3.7
16
2017 KK27
2017-Jun-04
15.7 LD
6.5
28
2017 KR27
2017-Jun-06
7 LD
12.6
67
2017 KQ27
2017-Jun-06
1 LD
10.7
25
2017 HV4
2017-Jun-10
19.5 LD
3.9
50
2017 KF3
2017-Jun-11
12.9 LD
11.2
41
2010 VB1
2017-Jun-16
10.3 LD
8.3
81
471984
2017-Jun-18
19.1 LD
7.7
102
441987
2017-Jun-24
7.9 LD
12.7
178
2017 BS5
2017-Jul-23
3.2 LD
5.8
54
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.

  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
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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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